IAEA Board of Governors Meeting
Statement by Mr Jarrod Powell, Alternate Resident Representative of Australia to the IAEA
Agenda Item 5: Nuclear and radiation safety
September 2020
Australia continues to place a high priority on the safety of nuclear facilities and of activities involving the use of radioactive material.
We thank Deputy Director General Lentijo for his introductory remarks, and we welcome the Director General’s Nuclear and Radiation Safety Report for 2020.
Australia appreciates the ongoing efforts of the Agency to continue to fulfil its important role in nuclear and radiation safety under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic. We welcome the Agency’s use of virtual meetings to limit the impact of the pandemic on the work of the Commission on Safety Standards and the Safety Standards Committees, and encourage the Secretariat to continue using virtual meetings and other innovative measures, where appropriate, across the full breadth of its nuclear safety activities.
We look forward to the 8th Review Meeting of the Convention on Nuclear Safety. While postponement of the CNS Review Meeting was unfortunate, it will allow us to ensure that when we do go ahead with the meeting, Contracting Parties will be able to maximise the benefits of the information exchange and peer review processes.
Similarly, we look forward to the 7th Review Meeting of the Joint Convention. While the indefinite postponement of the Joint Convention Extraordinary Meeting was regrettable, we encourage all Contracting Parties to continue to progress efforts to improve the Joint Convention procedures at the upcoming Review Meeting.
Australia continues to hold the view that there are gaps and deficiencies in the international regulatory framework as it relates to transportable nuclear power plants, or TNPPs. In this regard, we welcome the implementation of a collaborative project on TNPPs, as reported in document GOV/2020/28, and encourage the the Agency to work with other relevant international organisations on closing such gaps.
We thank the Secretariat for putting forward the revised formalised process for information exchange on the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources and its associated Guidance. We stand ready to endorse the revised process, as we did when this process was first endorsed by the Board in 2006.