Under the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Hungary coordinated the setting up of the EU stand at the exhibition linked to the 68th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where Hungary, Greece, Lithuania and Sweden were represented alongside the European Commission. On behalf of Hungary, the HUN-REN Centre for Energy Research (HUN-REN CER) coordinated the activities of the participating countries. In addition to the information material on nuclear safety and security, the experts presented a special radioactivity measurement simulator developed by HUN-REN CER. In addition, the nuclear forensic analysis, in which Hungary is a frontrunner (HUN-REN CER has been the IAEA Collaborating Centre in this field since 2016), was presented as a prominent theme of the exhibition. The official opening of the stand was attended by IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
Geoffrey Bruce Shaw, Director-General of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office visited Hungary on 13 September 2024 at the invitation of the President of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority (HAEA).
At the second meeting of the EU Working Party on Atomic Questions, held during the Hungarian EU Presidency, Member States reviewed the situation of nuclear safety and security of nuclear installations in Ukraine. The Joint Research Centre, the scientific and knowledge service of the European Commission, provided information on its activities on sustainable solutions for radioactive waste and spent fuel management and presented the current issues and main challenges in the development of skilled nuclear workforce. In doing so, he pointed out that the nuclear sector needs to attract between 70,000 and 90,000 new employees over the next 10 years, and that support for nuclear education and training remains essential to maintain and develop the highest level of nuclear safety and a competitive European industry.
The 68th annual General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency will be held in Vienna from 16 to 20 September 2024. In conjunction with the IAEA's main decision-making body, the General Conference, a scientific forum on the role of nuclear energy in agriculture and food technology, the Atoms4Food initiative, will be held from 17 to 18 September. The aim of Atoms4Food is to help the countries concerned to increase food security and combat growing hunger. During the week-long event, countries will also have the opportunity to hold bilateral and multilateral meetings, further strengthening international cooperation in the nuclear field.
The latest issue of HAEA’s Nuclear Safety Bulletin presenting a number of interesting articles is now available. The new issue covers the most significant statistical data on nuclear safety, the legal changes of the second half of 2023, the organisational changes in the HAEA, the development of HAEA’s communication tools, the nuclear emergency preparedness, the reactor scram at Paks NPP unit 4 due to malfunction, the regulatory oversight on the equipment takeover of the core-catcher and manufacturing process of the reactor pressure vessel belonging to the 5th unit of the new Paks II Nuclear Power Plant, the issue of a new operating licence to replace the expiring operating licence for the Budapest Research Reactor.