atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 03.2020

atw Vol. 65 (2020) | Issue 3 ı March
178
NUCLEAR TODAY
John Shepherd is a
freelance journalist
and communications
consultant.
Sources:
Grossi’s remarks in US
https://bit.ly/
2SdY2OZ
NPT review
conference
https://bit.ly/
2OHdot4
Agora Energiewende/
Sandbag report
https://bit.ly/2vo5y0s
IAEA Chief’s Zeal for Change Signals
Era of Nuclear Renewal
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which has been a key
component in spurring the worldwide spread of peaceful nuclear technology for development.
The Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), as it is commonly
known, entered into force in 1970, was extended
indefinitely in 1995 and has become nearly universal. The
anniversary will be marked at a review conference at the
United Nations headquarters in New York in April – and
the event comes at a crucial time.
Newly-elected director-general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, had
been due to be president of the conference until his
elevation to head of the global nuclear watchdog following
the death of Yukiya Amano.
Now Grossi has the task of not only shepherding the
agency through this latest five-yearly review of the NPT,
but to steering the IAEA beyond, into a new decade at a
time when the agency’s role and responsibilities are under
the utmost scrutiny and when funding constraints and
geopolitical pressures threaten to undermine the role of
the watchdog itself.
Ongoing tensions between North Korea and the
international community and the recent flare-up of
political hostilities between Iran, the US and others has
increased the strain the IAEA is under as the world’s
‘ honest broker’ in maintaining, through the NPT, a strong
non-proliferation regime.
But the director-general also, rightly, sees an expanded
role for the IAEA in tackling climate change in cooperation
with partner agencies. He said climate change would be an
increasing theme for the agency. “Many countries are
interested in making more use of nuclear technology to
mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change.”
On nuclear security, Grossi said member states had
agreed the IAEA should be “the global focal point for nuclear
security”. “Demands for our assistance are constantly
increasing,” he said. “But I believe more could be done to
make us a real focal point in practice and not just in name.”
Grossi’s belief is that the “great majority of countries”
that join the IAEA do so “because they are interested in
using nuclear technology to improve the day-to-day lives of
their people”.
In terms of health and welfare, Grossi has highlighted
cancer control as a priority, “as one of the most important
areas in which we make that technology available”. He
went as far as to say that deaths in developing countries
from cancer, which he said were treatable in richer countries
were “quite simply, a scandal”.
Meanwhile, as Grossi confirmed to staff at the start of
this year, there needs to be “tight control” of costs as the
agency navigates a period of “zero real budget growth”.
The IAEA, for all its vital work on behalf of us all (nuclearenergy
using nations and those that do not include nuclear
in the electricity-generating mix) has never been awash
with funds.
However, Grossi should be applauded for setting out a
bold vision for the IAEA in the years ahead rather than
allowing cash constraints to limit his breadth of scope and
ambition.
In 2018, the IAEA’s regular budget was about
€370.5 million. The US is the single largest contributor to
the agency’s regular budget and provides significant
extra- budgetary funding. The IAEA said this, together with
support also from other member states, has enabled it to
step up its assistance in areas benefiting millions of people
around the world, such as food security, cancer care,
nutrition, animal health, water management, energy
planning and others.
Following recent talks with Trump administration
officials in the US; Grossi acknowledged it would be
difficult to secure a “significant increase” in the IAEA’s
budget in the years ahead. He said the agency had to find
new ways to fund its activities.
Instead of simply pleading for more from the agency’s
member states, Grossi plans to use his role to entice
investment from non-traditional quarters. He confirmed
he has been “reaching out to new partners such as the
World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank”.
The director-general has told his officials “I am not
interested in departmental achievements… I am interested
in agency achievements and especially in successes
achieved by member states thanks to the support of the
IAEA”.
Grossi said he was elected “on a platform of change”
and his goal is to “recalibrate our approach where
necessary”.
The path ahead to ensure the IAEA’s continued viability
as a credible, valuable and trusted institution, to safeguard
the interests of the global nuclear community, will not be
an easy one. But the new director-general is to be
congratulated for his declared zeal and determination in
his early days of office.
There is still a blind spot for many in understanding
that nuclear energy goes hand in hand with environmental
protection, tackling climate change, supporting food
production, pest control and treating the sick – to name
just a few.
An increased role for the IAEA would be welcome – and
on climate change in particular, nuclear is pushing at an
open door, according to the latest findings of a study of
current electricity data carried out by Germany’s Agora
Energiewende and UK climate think-tank Sandbag.
The findings showed that in 2019, the European Union
electricity sector emitted 12 % less CO 2 than in the previous
year. At the same time, the share of renewables in
electricity production rose EU-wide to 35 %, a new record.
Electricity from nuclear power plants for the period
declined by only 1 %, the study said. The slight fall in
nuclear performance was put down to drought in some
areas, particularly in July, which hampered supplies of
cooling water from rivers.
If Grossi is successful in “recalibrating” the IAEA, his
leadership can be of particular benefit to nuclear power
producing nations and the myriad of industries supporting
the development of future nuclear technologies.
Nuclear Today
IAEA Chief’s Zeal for Change Signals Era of Nuclear Renewal ı John Shepherd