Results come from cooperation

Friday, 9 April 2010

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) are starting to roll out joint projects after signing a major cooperation deal late last year.

 

The UN agency and the JRC's Institute for Energy have agreed a 'Practical Arrangement',outlining five main areas of joint work including developing systems to help countries introduce nuclear power programs; planning and modelling nuclear deployment; developing fuel technologies and waste systems; researching advanced reactor technology and improving life management.

 

The agreement envisages cooperation such as joint technical meetings, publishing joint documents and implementing IAEA technical cooperation missions. In particular, the IAEA has promised to offer assistance to the European Commission's Nuclear Plant Life Prediction and the Safety of Eastern European Type Nuclear Facilities programs.

 

Cooperation between the two organisations has born fruit this year in the form of the safeguards deal completed in January. Now, EU information and intelligence is used to assure the IAEA about the purely civil nature of nuclear activity in the various EU states using nuclear energy that are not recognised nuclear weapons states. This reduces the safeguards burden on the IAEA and allow it to more efficiently concentrate other parts of its role.

 

Also, a paper published in February by scientists from the JRC Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) was released following their assessment of soil samples obtained from the IAEA and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. It included soil and moss samples collected from the site of the Chernobyl accident and aimed to improve techniques for assessing the presence of plutonium in radiation-contaminated soil through thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (TIMS). A JRC note said the techniques developed were "a significant advance in the 'fingerprinting' of plutonium contamination, giving nuclear safety and safeguards authorities more information on how nuclear material was produced and helping to identify sources of environmental contamination."

 

Speaking about the umbrella cooperation agreement IAEA deputy director general Yury Sokolov has said: "This practical arrangement will be mutually beneficial to both organisations. Following a rich history of collaboration, it is time to expand our cooperative scope, minimising possible duplications and maximising the synergy effects between our two organisations." In 2006, the commission and the IAEA celebrated 25 years of cooperation regarding nuclear safeguards at a ceremony in Karlsruhe, southern Germany.

 

The JRC's Institute for Energy provides scientific and technical support for developing EU energy policies and programs. It is based in Petten, the Netherlands, and Ispra, Italy, and has around 300 academic, technical, and support staff.
 
By Keith Nuthall
for World Nuclear News