[en] Mr. Chairman, I would like to begin by congratulating Rwanda on becoming the 155th Member State of the Agency. I will now update the Board on recent developments in nuclear safety and security, starting with implementation of the IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety. One year after its adoption, significant progress has been made. Possible safety weak points at nuclear power plants have been identified, IAEA peer review services have been strengthened and emergency preparedness and response capabilities have been improved. We undertook a systematic review of IAEA Safety Standards, taking into account lessons learned to date from the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Three international expert meetings have been held. They covered reactor safety and spent fuel safety, transparency and communication in an emergency, and protection against extreme earthquakes and tsunamis. A fourth expert meeting, on decommissioning and remediation after a nuclear accident, will take place in January 2013. The Fukushima Monitoring Database, which is a record of radiological monitoring data received by the Agency following the accident, has been made available through the IAEA website. And we are in the process of establishing an Emergency Preparedness and Response Expert Group. Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety met last month to discuss the Fukushima Daiichi accident and to review the effectiveness of the Convention. They approved revisions to the guidance documents to enhance reporting and the review process, taking into account lessons from the accident. They also considered a set of action-oriented objectives for strengthening nuclear safety. A working group is being established which will consider actions to strengthen the Convention. In December, the Fukushima Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety, organised by the Government of Japan and the IAEA, will take place in Fukushima Prefecture. It will provide another opportunity to share further knowledge and lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident. A considerable amount of work remains to be done under the Action Plan. It is essential that all of us - Member States, the IAEA and other key stakeholders - maintain our sense of urgency and our commitment to implementing the Action Plan in full. We must not relax our guard or lose sight of the ultimate goal, which is to make nuclear power as safe as humanly possible throughout the world and to restore public confidence. Nuclear Security. I will now turn to nuclear security. In the year to June 30, our Illicit Trafficking Database received reports of 163 incidents involving nuclear and radioactive materials. Eleven incidents involved illegal possession of small amounts of nuclear material or attempts to sell it. Such incidents are a reminder of the need for all countries to continue to give high priority to nuclear security. The Nuclear Security Report 2012 details the Agency's activities in assisting States. We are putting more emphasis on capacity-building, for example through the development of Integrated Nuclear Security Support Plans. Increased use is being made of our peer review and advisory services. The Nuclear Security Guidance Committee, a standing body of senior experts which I established this year to promote greater Member State involvement, has reviewed a document entitled Nuclear Security Fundamentals: Objective and Essential Elements of a State's Nuclear Security Regime. It is before the Board for endorsement. Later this month, I will attend the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Event on Nuclear Terrorism in New York. I welcome the fact that Member States continue to address this issue at a very high level. I am confident that, following up on the Nuclear Security Summits in Washington and Seoul, the New York meeting will further underline the Agency's central role in strengthening global nuclear security, which is based on our unique technical competence in this area. In July 2013, the Agency will organise an International Conference on Nuclear Security. I encourage all IAEA Member States to participate in this event. Nuclear Energy Turning now to nuclear energy, it remains clear from the Agency's latest projections that nuclear power will remain an important option for many countries, despite the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Our new low projection is for nuclear power capacity to grow by nearly 25 percent from current levels to 456 gigawatts by 2030. Our high projection is 740 gigawatts, which is twice current levels. Established users such as China, India, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation are expected to remain the main centres of expansion. The United Arab Emirates recently became the first of the current newcomer countries to start construction of a nuclear power plant. Belarus has ordered its first reactors, while construction permits have been applied for in Turkey. In our work with all newcomer countries, the Agency puts special emphasis on ensuring the highest standards of safety. The Agency's International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO), which now has 38 participant countries, has conducted successful ''Dialogue Forums'' on regional cooperation and on long-term prospects for nuclear energy in the post-Fukushima era. The International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century in St Petersburg, Russia, next June, which I announced previously, will focus on the role of nuclear power in sustainable development. Last month, during my visit to Finland, I had an opportunity to visit the ONKALO facility, where a repository for the final disposal of spent fuel is being built deep underground. It is an impressive site. The nuclear industry has been managing interim waste disposal successfully for more than half a century, but ONKALO is one of the most advanced final disposal projects in the world. Progress in this area, in Finland and a number of other countries, deserves to be better known.