By NNN-PTI,
New York : Over 50 countries have alerted the IAEA that they are considering utilising nuclear power with Turkey and Vietnam actively preparing their atomic programmes, the head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog has said.
Addressing the 50th anniversary meeting of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, Mohamed ElBaradei said that a decade ago, nuclear power’s popularity was in question.
“When we talked about transferring nuclear technology to developing countries, we generally meant applications in medicine and industry, not nuclear power,” the IAEA Director General said.
But the tides have turned and “change is in the air,” he said, with many of the agency’s Member States mostly from the developing world expressing interest in nuclear power. He put the number of such countries to over 50.
One dozen countries, including Turkey and Vietnam, are actively preparing nuclear programmes, while China is constructing six power reactors and Russia intends to build dozens of both large and small reactors by 2020.
Greater efforts are essential to ensure that nuclear power’s future is “safe, proliferation-resistant and cost-effective,” ElBaradei said.
“Every country has the right to develop nuclear power, but also a responsibility to do it properly,” he noted.
But, the IAEA chief cautioned that it is crucial to have realistic expectations of how quickly countries can have nuclear reactors online.
“It can take a minimum of 10 years just to put the basic infrastructure in place. This is not an area where you can cut corners.”