Excellencies, Mr Mayor, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning. I am very pleased to welcome you all to Seibersdorf.
We are here to inaugurate the new access road to the IAEA Seibersdorf Laboratories Campus. The road will be known as Friedensstrasse – Peace Road. This is especially appropriate as I often summarise the mandate of the IAEA as Atoms for Peace and Development.
The opening of the new road is an important step forward in our plans to renovate the eight nuclear applications laboratories.
I am very grateful to the Austrian authorities at all levels – in the Federal Government, the State of Lower Austria, and here in the Municipality of Seibersdorf – for the generous support which they have always given to the IAEA.
I also thank the local community, including our friends and neighbours at the Austrian Institute of Technology, for their partnership and cooperation.
Austria is a model host country for the IAEA. The new buildings already on this site, and those that will join them in the next few years, are testimony to that.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Since our unique nuclear applications laboratories opened in 1962, they have been offering training to scientists in Member States; supporting research in human health, food and other areas; and providing analytical services to national laboratories.
Demand for their services has grown dramatically, as has our membership. Back in 1962, the Agency had 79 Member States. Today, we have 168.
The laboratories, which became fully extra-territorial last year, are central to our efforts to fulfil one of our core responsibilities, which is to help Member States gain access to nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes. They will play an important role in helping developing countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted by world leaders in New York last September.
This side of the Agency's work does not get the same public attention as our activities in nuclear safeguards, nuclear safety and nuclear security. But it is just as important.
As you may know, the two safeguards laboratories – the Clean Laboratory and the Nuclear Material Laboratory – were fully modernised in recent years. Now we are about to start the construction of new buildings for the nuclear applications laboratories under the IAEA ReNuAL project. This modernisation is long overdue. I expect that this project will be completed on time and within budget, as was the case with the safeguards laboratories.
I am proud of the high calibre of the scientists and engineers from many disciplines, and from many countries, who work in the laboratories.
As well as undertaking important long-term research, they are quick to respond to sudden crises in Member States. For example, researchers at the Insect Pest Control Laboratory are now focussing on helping countries in Latin America and the Caribbean respond to the zika virus.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me conclude by thanking all the staff of the Seibersdorf laboratories – past and present – who have helped to make the labs an invaluable asset to this organization, and to our Member States.
I look forward to welcoming you all back for the opening of the new laboratories before too long.
Thank you.