UN atomic energy agency’s board gathers to discuss upcoming budget

With the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog having warned recently that funding limitations are a major obstacle to verification, the body’s board is meeting in Vienna today to discuss its upcoming budget.

Taous Feroukhi, the chairperson of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called for a special meeting to discuss and take action on the 2010-2011 budget and programme of work.

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has said in recent weeks that calls for zero growth in the body’s budget are untenable given the scope of work the IAEA must do.

“Our ability to maintain an independent nuclear verification system and detect possible diversion of nuclear material and undeclared nuclear activities is already at risk because, for example, our analytical laboratories are outdated and we lack sufficient access to satellite imagery,” he told the Board of Governors, comprising 35 member States, in June. “Without additional funding, this situation can only get worse.”

Mr. ElBaradei also warned that dramatic staff shortages in the IAEA’s nuclear safety programme opens up the possibility that another disaster such as the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear tragedy could occur again.

“The risk of terrorists obtaining nuclear or radioactive materials and using them in a potentially devastating attack will grow if the highly inadequate staffing and funding of our nuclear security activities are not dealt with,” he added in his address to the Board’s 15 June meeting.

Further, the Agency’s capacity to help developing countries facing security challenges will be eroded unless more resources are made available, the outgoing Director General stressed.

A commission of experts, Mr. ElBaradei pointed out, has found that the IAEA needs € 80 million upfront to deal with its dilapidated infrastructure.

“The Agency can continue to struggle on with growing restrictions and increasing risk, watching the quality of its services erode, or, with adequate funding, it can make an effective contribution to non-proliferation, nuclear security and the scourges of poverty, hunger and disease,” he said.

Last month, the Board selected Yukiya Amano, a Japanese diplomat with a lengthy record of working on disarmament and non-proliferation issues, as the next head of the Agency.

Mr. Amano, currently Japan’s Ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna and a member of the IAEA Board of Governors, will becomes the fifth Director General of the Agency when Mr. ElBaradei steps down at the end of November.