IAEA

Unofficial Translation

Dear Ms. Chair,

The Russian side has studied in detail the report of the Acting Director General GOV/2019/26 “Strengthening the Agency's Activities related to Nuclear Science, Technology and Applications” and its annexes. We take note of this document. We thank the DDGs Ms. N.Mokhtar and Mr. M.V.Chudakov for the work done. We note with satisfaction that the Agency is systematically and successfully addressing the tasks set in resolutions GC(61)/RES/11 and GC(62)/RES/9 of the 62nd session of the General Conference. We presume that in this programme area the IAEA motto is fully implemented in the form it was formulated by the late Director General Mr. Y.Amano: “Atoms for Peace and Development”.

The report demonstrates the Agency’s great work in promoting the peaceful atom, both in the nuclear energy sector and in non-energy segments. Both of these are significant contributions to sustainable global development.

The most important event of the past period was the first IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology, held in November 2018. We highly appreciate its significance and the adopted declaration.

The Russian side is satisfied with the activities of the IAEA in the field of nuclear energy and welcomes the strengthening of the work of the Department of Nuclear Energy in the sphere of management of nuclear power plants, personnel training, ensuring long-term safe operation of nuclear energy facilities and the fuel cycle, including transparent quality assurance systems at all stages of construction. We welcome the fact that the report pays special attention to nuclear infrastructure issues, including those necessary for the construction of the first nuclear power plant. The Agency's programme activities in this area are extremely important as they allow to give the IAEA efforts a systematic character. In this regard, we note the need for the broadest possible involvement of national personnel in the events held by the Agency.

We welcome the application of the infrastructure approach to the analysis of national research reactor construction programmes. We support the establishment in a number of countries of new national centers of atomic science and technology, which are to become “centers of crystallization” for the future implementation of nuclear energy. We plan to share our experience on relevant bilateral programmes at the seminar, which will be held on the sidelines of the upcoming session of the General Conference.

We welcome the strengthening of the system of Collaboration Centers under the auspices of the IAEA. We attach particular importance to International Centres based on Research Reactors (ICERR). We are currently planning to expand our ICERR in Dimitrovgrad with the unique new-generation MBIR research reactor under construction. This facility will provide an opportunity to test materials and fuel for the developing projects of almost all innovative reactors.

We note the active cooperation of the Secretariat with the ITER international project. The development of fusion energy is gradually approaching the stage of energy use, and we suggest that this direction be considered in the IAEA Main Program 1 not only at the level of basic research, but also as a promising source of energy. We are actively participating in the activities of the IAEA in nuclear fusion and next month we will conduct a workshop in Moscow on the design of a demonstration thermonuclear reactor (DEMO).

Dear Ms. Chair,

Russia is determined to continue the comprehensive assistance to the IAEA in implementing innovative projects, especially the INPRO, which was launched at the time by the initiative of our country. This project, among other things, is able to help Member States build their energy systems, taking into account the requirements of the Paris Climate Agreement, set optimal parameters of the nuclear component in the national economy, create the necessary infrastructure for a future or developing national program and determine the place for more advanced, safe and efficient installations, taking into account their features and capabilities.

We see that the INPRO is moving from theoretical developments to the direct modeling of nuclear power systems. We support the development by the Secretariat of a new service (ASENES) for scenario analysis and decision support for the development of nuclear power systems with increased stability. Member States have at their disposal effective tools to answer the most pressing questions regarding the optimal parameters of nuclear energy in a particular country.

We especially note the improvements in the work of the Secretariat in the field of back-end stage of the nuclear fuel cycle. This is the creation of a special section on decommissioning of nuclear energy facilities and environmental remediation of territories. We consider the International Conference on the Management of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel held in June 2019 a great success. The mentioned forum not only showed the whole range of developments and best practices in this area, but also made it possible to analyze various strategic approaches to solving the corresponding problems.

Dear Ms. Chair,

We are pleased to note the expansion of the IAEA's work on small and medium-sized reactors. This area today sets a high level of expectations for a technological breakthrough and portends the creation of stable sources of clean energy for hard-to-reach regions of the world.

In this regard, we want to note our innovative work on the creation of the first floating nuclear power plant “Academic Lomonosov” which has just arrived to the place of operation in Pevek in the Far North of Russia. We thank the Secretariat for the thorough preparation and holding of a special briefing on 30 August on transportable power plants.

The development of new energy technologies, such as this, gives us new tools to meet the goals of sustainable development. In this regard, we want to emphasize the special role of nuclear energy in solving climate problems. We welcome the holding of the International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Energy in October this year.

We note that the growing role of the IAEA in achieving the sustainable development goals is impossible without reliance on the material support and technological potential of Member States. The new forms of international cooperation in the field of atomic energy, which the Agency is developing, are of particular importance. The outpost of these efforts is the Agency’s nuclear science and application laboratories in Seibersdorf. Back then, we supported the initiative of the IAEA Director General to comprehensively modernize this laboratory complex and are one of the project donors. We fully support the development of the ReNuAl project and believe that the initiative of our colleagues from Japan, Germany and South Africa to assign the name of Director General Y.Amano to one of the new laboratories will adequately reflect his contribution to the promotion of Atoms for Peace and Development.

Thank you Ms. Chair.