Thursday 9 April 2020

The UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) are delighted to announce the signing of a “Practical Arrangements” document with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to underpin and facilitate closer cooperation between the two organisations in support of the role of nuclear energy in delivering a sustainable future.

Under the terms of the agreement, NNL and IAEA will work more closely together in areas including:

• Increasing the efficiency of operating nuclear power plants
• Good practices in stakeholder engagement
• Good practice in innovation for nuclear power reactors – today’s designs and those of the future
• Advanced nuclear technologies, including SMRs and innovative nuclear energy systems
• Decommissioning, waste management and waste disposal.

NNL’s Chief Strategy Officer, James Murphy said:

“NNL already has long history of successful collaboration with the IAEA. To give just two examples, we were pleased recently both to mark 40 years of successful input from the UK (much of it led by NNL) to the IAEA’s Safeguards Assistance programme and to have NNL’s Preston Laboratory accredited as a member of the prestigious IAEA Network of Analytical Laboratories. It’s great to see this successful relationship being broadened and strengthened in this way, and this in turn represents an exciting opportunity for NNL and IAEA to work together to jointly tackle some of the greatest challenges facing all aspects of our sector. Only through important collaborations of this kind, will we ensure nuclear can continue to play its vital role in the global low carbon economy.”

Dohee Hahn, Director of IAEA Division of Nuclear Power, added:

“I am pleased to establish this Practical Arrangement between the UK National Nuclear Laboratory and the IAEA. It recognises and strengthens our longstanding collaboration that continues to serve the interests of our Member States, in particular those currently relying on nuclear power or that foresee a role for nuclear power in sustainable energy systems of the future. I appreciate the tangible outcomes already delivered thorough this partnership; for example, NNL experts contributed to the planning and implementation of the IAEA 2019 International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power. I look forward to the results still to come.”

An early example of the enhanced collaboration between the two organisations is the upcoming Global Nuclear Innovation Forum, taking place in London, where both NNL and IAEA are among the organising bodies.  The event follows on from the successful 2019 event – the inaugural Global Nuclear Innovation Forum – held in South Korea, where both NNL and IAEA were again involved in hosting and presenting.