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STORY: IAEA / GROSSI GENERAL CONFERENCE
TRT: 3:26
SOURCE: IAEA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 16 SEPTEMBER 2024, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
1. Various shots, conference room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency:
“From the front lines of war to the radiotherapy units, to the food and the protection of the environment, in all of these areas, this agency is and will continue to be at your service for the noble mission of keeping atoms for peace and development.”
3. Various shots, conference room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency:
“Through the Atoms for Food project, which we launched together with our friends from FAO, we are trying precisely to bring nuclear technologies through food irradiation, through pest insect to containment technologies, through soil improvement, crop improvement technologies, some remedy to this global crisis.”
5. Wide shot, conference room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency:
“This is behind our Race of Hope initiative, which we launched in close coordination with the WHO and which is supporting countries all over the world, in particular low and middle income countries where in some cases not a single radiotherapy machine exists. So this support that the IAEA is giving is done through equipment, through training, and in some cases even erecting constructing cancer centres. We need to continue counting on your support for this noble mission.”
7. Wide shot, conference room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency:
“In a few weeks, the first international conference on SMRs, on Small Modular Reactors, will take place here in this very room, and we will be able to gauge the state of the art in this technology. Who is doing what? How can we and especially developing countries also, can benefit from this important instrument to give our energy mixes an important additional instrument to produce energy without harming the environment.”
9. Wide shot, conference room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency:
“A nuclear power plant, a peaceful nuclear power plant, should never be attacked under any circumstances, irrespective of the place where these nuclear power plants, are situated. And we will continue in this effort.”
11. Wide shot, conference room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency:
“I salute the possibility and look forward to engaging with the new president of Iran and with the government of Iran in continuing in our indispensable efforts to give the credible assurances to the international community that that nuclear program is in peaceful ways, and it will continue so. There are challenges ahead, but they are not insurmountable.”
13. Wide shot, conference room
Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said that from the front lines of war to the radiotherapy units, to the food and the protection of the environment, the Agency is and will continue to be “at service for the noble mission of keeping atoms for peace and development.”
Director General Grossi today (16 Sep) spoke to the 68th IAEA General Conference and the opening session.
He began with the Agency’s newest initiative, Atoms4Food, which was launched last year with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Grossi said, “we are trying precisely to bring nuclear technologies through food irradiation, through pest insect to containment technologies, through soil improvement, crop improvement technologies, some remedy to this global crisis.”
The Director General also said that during the five-day conference, more than 200, 000 people around the world will be told they have cancer.
In February 2022, IAEA launched Rays of Hope: Cancer Care for All at the sidelines of the African Union summit, in close coordination with the World Health Organization. Since then, 86 countries have reached out to the Agency for support under Rays of Hope and concrete actions have been initiated in more than 30 Member States.
He said, “this support that the IAEA is giving is done through equipment, through training, and in some cases even erecting constructing cancer centres. We need to continue counting on your support for this noble mission.”
The Agency’s chief also noted that the first International Conference on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and their Applications will be held from October 21–25, 2024 in Vienna, Austria.
He said, “we will be able to gauge the state of the art in this technology. Who is doing what? How can we and especially developing countries also, can benefit from this important instrument to give our energy mixes an important additional instrument to produce energy without harming the environment.”
As the war in Ukraine has continued, so has IAEA’s support of the safety and security of its nuclear facilities, Grossi noted.
Since establishing a continued presence at its nuclear facilities two years ago, IAEA have deployed more than 140 support and assistance missions to Ukraine. Agency experts continue to be deployed at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which remains in cold shutdown at the front lines of the war; at the Chornobyl site; and at Ukraine’s operating nuclear power plants: Rivne, Khmelnytskyy, and South Ukraine.
In late August Grossi also travelled to the Russian Federation and visited the Kursk NPP.
The Director General reiterated, “A nuclear power plant, a peaceful nuclear power plant, should never be attacked under any circumstances, irrespective of the place where these nuclear power plants, are situated. And we will continue in this effort.”
Moving on to Iran, Grossi saluted the possibility and is looking forward to engaging with the new president of Iran and with the government of Iran in continuing in IAEA’s “indispensable efforts to give the credible assurances to the international community that that nuclear program is in peaceful ways, and it will continue so.”
“There are challenges ahead, but they are not insurmountable,” he concluded.
The 68th Regular Session of the IAEA General Conference is being held from 16 to 20 September 2024 at the Vienna International Centre (VIC) in Vienna, Austria, where high-ranking officials and representatives from IAEA Member States will consider a range of issues.
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