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IAEA Faces Nuclear Dilemma As It Celebrates 50th Anniversary
Vienna (AFP) Jul 29, 2007 The International Atomic Energy Agency celebrated its 50th anniversary Sunday as it continues to face the dilemma of preventing the spread of nuclear technology for military purposes while condoning it for civilian purposes. In a congratulatory note to IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei posted on the agency's website, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: "the IAEA has strived to accelerate and expand its contributions to security and development. I applaud the ceaseless efforts made by the IAEA towards this end." Pope Benedict XVI also praised the UN watchdog's work Sunday in Rome: "now more than ever, (it is) current and urgent to encourage the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, to promote progressive and negotiated nuclear disarmament and to favour the peaceful and secure use of nuclear technology" for the good of people and the environment. The Vienna-based IAEA, which counts 144 member states, was set up in 1957 to ensure the peaceful use of nuclear energy. It monitors compliance with the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has carried out verification missions in over 70 countries. In 2005, ElBaradei and the IAEA received a Nobel Peace Prize for their work. But the agency faces a fundamental dilemma as voiced by IAEA Deputy Director General David Waller in a recent speech: "On the one hand to develop and facilitate the application of those promising beneficial applications of nuclear technology, and, on the other, to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons." The West, especially the United States, suspects Iran for instance of seeking nuclear bombs under the cover of a civilian nuclear power program and the UN Security Council has already imposed two rounds of sanctions on Tehran to get it to suspend enrichment of uranium, a potential material for atom bombs. Iraq, an NPT signatory state, also developed a secret nuclear weapons programme under Saddam Hussein, Waller pointed out in his speech. But the IAEA scored some successes in 2003 when Libya decided to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and this month when North Korea welcomed agency inspectors back into the country for the first time since December 2002 to monitor the shutdown of its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. Besides the five acknowledged nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- four other countries have or are believed to have nuclear weapons: India, Israel and Pakistan, which have not signed the NPT, and North Korea. ElBaradei was keen to point out at a conference in South Korea earlier this month however that the IAEA also carries out work in other areas, such as in agriculture and health, using radiation to develop new crop varieties and eliminate insect pests like the tse-tse fly. The agency also monitors some 437 nuclear power reactors in 30 countries, which supply about 15.2 percent of the world's electricity, he said. Special events and exhibits were organised in the run-up to the anniversary but the day itself was celebrated without pomp and circumstance Sunday.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Civil Nuclear Energy Science, Technology and News Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
German Opposition To French-Libyan Nuclear Deal Unabated
Berlin (AFP) Jul 30, 2007German opposition mounted Saturday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's new venture on the world stage in agreeing to build a nuclear reactor in Libya, despite efforts by Paris to reassure Berlin. The French government on Friday had sought to allay German fears of "recklessness" by assuring Berlin that all guarantees had been taken with regard to nuclear non-proliferation. The French-Libyan accord, which envisions building a nuclear reactor for a water desalination plant, is "a bitter pill for the EU," said Ruprecht Polenz, conservative head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, in the newspaper Tagesspiegel am Sonntag. |
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