Nuclear power, safety, scientific research, and the importance of effective cancer diagnosis and treatment using nuclear technology were among the key topics that IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano discussed during his visits to Slovenia and Switzerland this week.
In Slovenia, Mr Amano met Darja Bavdaz Kuret, State Secretary of Foreign Affairs and briefed her on the relevance of the IAEA’s work to the recently adopted United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. He also visited the country’s Institute of Oncology, where he was briefed on Slovenia’s mammography screening programme. The goal of the programme, called DORA, is to reduce breast cancer mortality by achieving a participation rate of at least 70% in mammography screening among women across the country.
Mr Amano also visited the Jožef Stefan Reactor Infrastructure Centre near Ljubljana. The Centre’s TRIGA Mark II research reactor plays an important role in the development of a nuclear safety culture in Slovenia, in neutron research and in the production of radioactive isotopes for use in medicine and industry. The Centre regularly hosts IAEA research fellows from developing countries.
In Switzerland, Mr Amano met Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Burkhalter, Minister of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications Doris Leuthard and other senior officials. He updated his hosts on the IAEA’s work in Iran, in nuclear safety and security, and on the status of the construction of the IAEA’s new nuclear applications laboratories and the funding required for completing them. He concluded his two-day visit with meetings at the country’s nuclear regulator, the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI), where he was briefed about ENSI’s work in nuclear safety and security.
