Opening Address [Technical Meeting/Workshop on Topical Issues on Infrastructure Development: Managing the Development of a National Infrastructure for Nuclear Power Plants, Vienna (Austria), 24-27 January 2012]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to express my cordial welcome to the participants of the 6th annual workshop on nuclear power infrastructure since 2006. Looking back at the development of nuclear power programmes for embarking countries since 2006, I am glad to see that many embarking countries apply the IAEA Milestones approach and have made much progress, since several countries already have entered or entering into phase 3, the construction of the first nuclear power plant. Since the last annual workshop, the most shocking event was the accident in Fukushima Daiichi in March 2011, which was caused by an earthquake and tsunami of unprecedented severity. Looking at the impact of this accident on the nuclear power, there were speculations that the expansion in interest in nuclear power, which we had experienced in recent years, could come to an end. However, it is clear now that there will be continuous and significant growth in the use of nuclear power in the next two decades, although at a slower rate than in our previous projections. Most of the growth will occur in countries that already have operating nuclear power plants, such as China, India and Russia. In countries which are considering introducing nuclear power, interest remains strong, despite Fukushima Daiichi. Most of these countries are proceeding with plans to add nuclear power to their energy mix, with the Agency's assistance. Only a few countries cancelled or revised their plans, while others have taken a ''wait and see'' approach. However, the factors that contributed to increasing interest in nuclear power before the Fukushima Daiichi accident have not changed: these include increasing global demand for energy, as well as concerns about climate change, volatile fossil fuel prices and security of energy supply. The countries strongly committed to nuclear power such as the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Belarus, Vietnam, Jordan, Bangladesh and Poland, keep the same position even after the accident. The IAEA has taken a series of actions in response to the Fukushima accident, including the activation of the IAEA Incident and Emergency Centre immediately after the accident and sending several IAEA International Fact Finding Expert Missions to Japan. Currently, the IAEA is working hard to implement the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety, which was agreed at the Board of Governors last September. This Action Plan and its implementation will be explained later by my colleagues; I would like to point out that the development of the infrastructrure necessary for Member States embarking on nuclear power programme is one of the 12 areas covered in that action plan. I would like to stress that there is progress in Member States for the introduction of nuclear power. I had several opportunities in bilateral meetings to experience the commitment of senior officials in embarking countries. During the last two months, I visited two newcomer countries - Malaysia and UAE, and got first-hand information about their potential for a national nuclear program. During the side events of the last IAEA General Conference, senior officials from UAE, Turkey and Vietnam clearly expressed their commitments to nuclear power programmes with steady progress in the cooperation with vendor countries. I am impressed that these countries are working closely with vendor countries in developing the required physical infrastructure and human resources. Quite recently, I was informed that Belarus and Bangladesh had intergovernmental agreements with Russia to introduce nuclear power in their countries. So nuclear power remains an important option for energy supply. However, it is a fact that the public is concerned about nuclear safety, and several countries have experienced difficulties in national decisions to introduce nuclear power programmes. Although the situation differs among the countries, I hope that participants can learn good practices for public communication from the experience of other countries. The IAEA is making continuous efforts to strengthen its support to embarking countries with assistance from experienced countries. Our Department established the Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Group (INIG) in 2011 as a group dedicated to support the nuclear newcomer countries; the number of staff was doubled last year, by increasing the number of regular staff and cost free experts. With regard to the financial contributions, since 2010, funds from the Peaceful Use Initiative support our activities. I would like to draw your attention to the achievements of the last one year: - We had and INIR mission to Bangladesh, headed by Director JK Park, which covered phase 1 and phase 2 activities for the first time in November. The Bangladesh mission demonstrated that the Milestones approach is flexible enough be used in a meaningful way by a country engaging in a non-competitive intergovernmental agreement instead of the bidding process, and considering a Build-Own-Operate contract model instead of a turnkey; - We introduced an Integrated Workplan, which incorporates IAEA activities from different TC projects and other extrabadugeary sources. For Vietnam, we were able to implement 12 workshops, expert missions and training courses since the integrated work plan was introduced in May 2011. This approach to managing assistance activities in nuclear power infrastructure is being applied to other countries as well; - The Technical Working Group on Nuclear Power Infrastructure, which is an advisory committee to me on assistance activities to newcomer countries, chaired by Mr Mendez, provided several useful suggestions to me. I would like to use this opportunity to also express my appreciation to France, the Republic of Korea and the United States for hosting training courses for newcomers under the Technical Cooperation Programme.