International Atomic Energy Agency - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) is an organization which depends directly on the Safety advice of the United Nations. Based with Vienna, in Austria, she seeks to promote the peaceful uses of the nuclear energy and to limit the development of her military applications.

The budget of the year 2004 is of more than 268 million US dollars.

The IAEA obtained the Nobel Prize of peace in 2005.

Its seat is to the 5 Wagramer Strasse, with Vienna, in Austria.

History

The December 8th 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, proposes at the time of the General meeting of the United Nations the creation of an international agency charged to control the use of the nuclear matters.

The statute of the IAEA is approved the October 23rd 1956 by 81 countries. The statute makes the IAEA responsible for the control of the good application of the safety and the protection of the people as well as transfer of the nuclear engineerings.

It takes up duty officially the July 29th 1957.

Of 1957 with 1962, the tensions between the two Super power S, the the United States and the the USSR, return the application of the statute of the impossible IAEA. It will be necessary to await the Crise of the cuban missiles so that both superpuissances start to want to control their nuclear armaments.

In 1961, the IAEA opens an analysis laboratory to Seibersdorf, in Austria. The same year, the IAEA signs cooperation agreements with Monaco and the oceanographical Institut of Monaco directed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. The purpose of these agreements are to carry out research on the effects of the radioactivity in seamen circle. That will lead to the creation of the Laboratoire of the maritime environment of the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA-LEM), the November 4th 2002.

In 1968, with the ratification of the Treated non-proliferation of the nuclear weapons (NPT), the IAEA becomes the person in charge of the monitoring of the good application of the treaty. This treaty prevents the states signatories from increasing their number of nuclear weapons and for those which do not have any not to seek to have some.

Following the oil crises in the Years 1970, and thanks to the lobbying pronucléaire of the IAEA, several countries plan to massively use nuclear energy for their needs energetics, the IAEA thus sees increasing the number of its controls.

The catastrophe of Three Mile Island, in 1979, and mainly that of Tchernobyl, in 1986, stop many countries in their will to use nuclear energy. Following these catastrophes, the IAEA increases its efforts in the field of nuclear safety without calling in question its objectives.

The discovery, in 1991, on the clandestine nuclear program Iraq IEN, various governments decide to increase the means and the role of the IAEA in the control of the nuclear armament.

The IAEA intervenes in 2003 during controls which preceded the Guerre in Iraq. In addition to this last and its monitoring of the respect of the NPT, the IAEA counts in August 2004 of the programs:

in Iran
in Libya
in North Korea
with Tchernobyl

Functions and objectives

According to the Statute of the IAEA which lays down the objectives and functions of the Agency, its role is to ensure a sure and peaceful use technologies and sciences related to the nuclear power. The IAEA continues this mission with the following functions:

inspections of the existing installations to make sure of a peaceful use
information and publications of standards for the stability and the safety of nuclear installations
bond for the search for application and the peaceful use of the nuclear engineering

After having received the Nobel Prize of peace, Mohamed El Baradei recalled in its speech that 1% of the appropriations granted to research in the military field would be enough to nourish planet.

Composition

The principal bodies of the IAEA are:

Secretariat

The Secretariat is made up teams of professional and general services directed by the Managing director. This station is currently occupied by Dr. Mohamed El Baradei. This one is responsible for the application of the actions decided by the General conference and the council of the governors. The Managing director is chosen by the council and approval by the conference for a four years mandate renouvable. He is composed of 2220 people coming of more than 90 different countries. These people work mainly in the various offices of the IAEA (Vienna, Geneva, New York, in the laboratory of Seibersdorf, etc). The secretariat is composed of six departments:

Administration
Research and application of the nuclear power
Nuclear energy
Safety and nuclear protection
Technical collaboration
Controllers and checking

General conference of the IAEA

The role and the composition of the General conference are defined in article 5 of the Statute of the IAEA.

The Conference consists of all the Member States, which are 144 in March 2007. All receive a right to vote. The budgetary matters, of amendment of the statutes or suspension of the privileges of one of the members requires a majority of the two-thirds. The other questions requires a simple majority.

The conference takes place normally once per annum, in September. Its role is to approve the program and the budget of the agency suggested by the Council. That Ci can also require accounts on the programs in progress near the Council. At the time of each gathering, a president is elected for the duration of the conference and it to ensure the good behavior of the debates.

The principal function of this conference is to be used as forum to discuss policies and actions in progress. The various bodies of the IAEA can add to the day order the subjects which they wish to discuss. The role of the conference is almost similar to that of the General meeting of the United Nations.

The Council of the governors

It is article 6 of the Statute of the IAEA which fixes the composition and the role of the Council of the governors (in English Board off Governors ).

On the whole, 35 members of which 13 are indicated by the leaving Council and are 22 elected officials by the General conference sit at the Council. A certain representativeness must be respected in the election of the members of the Council. It is to this end that eight zones were defined:

On the 35 members, ten are chosen by the outgoing Council among the most advanced States as regards nuclear engineerings the three remainders selected in geographical areas are not represented by the ten first. These members have a one year mandate.

The 22 other States present at the Council of the governors are elected at the time of the General conference of the Member States of the IAEA with mandate a two years and eleven are elected each year. The closed ones imposing a geographical diversity are also stipulated in the statutes.

Over the period 2006-2007, the members of the Council are:

The Council of the governors meets five times per annum, with the head office of the IAEA with Vienna. The meetings have in March place, June, twice in September (before and after the General conference) and in December. The council is the principal decision maker of the policy of the IAEA. The Council forms its recommendations for the budget and the activities subjected to the general conference. It is responsible for the publication for the standards and standards of the IAEA, as well as the nomination of candidates at the Général position of director which is subjected to the approval of the Conference.

Board of management

He is composed of the managing director and six executive vice presidents for the six departments of the Secretariat

Of 1981 with 1997, Hans Blix was at the general position of director. Since 1997, this function is filled by Mohamed El Baradei.

Criticisms

The IAEA opposes the military use of nuclear energy, but massively supports the civil use of the nuclear plants. Its goal is the development of nuclear energy for the electrical production in all the Member States (currently 139 countries).

But the military production of fuel can be carried out, (or in any case facilitated), starting from certain types of civil nuclear plants. Moreover, the inspections carried out by the agency often meet many obstacles, which prevents it from controlling perfectly the activities of certain states. Thus in Iraq, it was necessary for several months to him to conclude that the mode had not succeeded in manufacturing of atomic weapons. In many its investigation campaigns, the IAEA reconsidered without real certainty the programs in progress. Certain countries like the India, Israel and the Pakistan were invited among the nuclear powers without the IAEA being able to control the clandestine programs of country not signatories of the NPT.

the Handing-over of the Nobel Prize of peace 2005 with the IAEA also raised criticisms to him among the opponents at the agency. Showing the IAEA to support the proliferation of nuclear weapons via the development of the civilian nuclear (although this type of bond is not easily demonstrable, civilian nuclear and requiring soldier of materials and the different installations) rather than to control the uses of the atom, the antinuclear ones saw this Nobel Prize, like a way of legitimating an organization which does not achieve the unanimity. This Nobel Prize also made it possible to support the agency and to reinforce its credibility in its investigations in the crisis of the Iranian nuclear power.
the Antinucléaire S show the IAEA to minimize the risks related to the nuclear energy utilization. Thus, in one of its reports/ratios on the Catastrophe of Tchernobyl, 50 victims only were counted by the IAEA. The other reports/ratios of the IAEA evaluate a maximum of 4 000 long-term victims, while the the World Health Organization (WHO) announces numbers of victims with 5 digits, and the International association of the doctors for the prevention of the nuclear war estimates the number of the victims at 6 digits.
Of with dimensions, WHO has a real expertise on Tchernobyl, but it is related to an agreement with the IAEA with regard to the consequences of the radioactivity on health. The genetic damage generated by Tchernobyl cannot for example not be quoted by WHO. Another example: in 1995, the acts of a conference organized by WHO, joining together more than 700 doctors studying the effects of the catastrophe of Tchernobyl, were quite simply censured. The explanations of the attitude of WHO are the following ones:

Since an agreement signed in 1959, the IAEA supervises all research on the medical risks pulled by the commercial use of nuclear energy, instead of the organizations of independent doctors.
the agreement between the WHO and the IAEA of 1959 implies that all the research projects - whose results could limit the growth of nuclear industry - could be carried out by WHO only if it " collabore" with the IAEA.

Iran and IAEA

References

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