From 20-24 June 2011, the UAE participated in the IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria to discuss the lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The delegation was led by H.E. Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
The IAEA convened the High-Level Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety for its Member States and international organizations that are participating in the Joint Radiation Emergency Management Plan of the International Organizations in response to the Fukushima crisis and endorsed the IAEA’s Action Plan on Nuclear Safety which was drafted at this Conference and later adopted at the 55th General Conference.
The UAE was involved with the development of the Nuclear Safety Plan, which was a product of intensive consultations among Member States of the IAEA and which resulted in a framework for strengthening nuclear safety, emergency preparedness and radiation protection worldwide.
The conference was of tremendous significance to the UAE, as its nuclear energy program has been deemed a role model among nuclear newcomers. In this regard, the UAE places utmost importance in ensuring that the lessons learned from Fukushima accident are considered in refining the safety and security structure of the UAE program.
Background: Joint Radiation Emergency Management Plan of the International Organizations
The Joint Radiation Emergency Management Plan of the International Organizations was developed and is maintained to substantially improve emergency response. The Joint Plan describes the interagency framework for a response to a radiation emergency and it is applied by the international organisations that are members of the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiological and Nuclear Emergencies: the European Commission (EC), the European Police Office (EUROPOL), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD/NEA), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
