The 68th General Conference of the IAEA has concluded: HAEA held numerous professional discussions

Source: IAEA

The delegation of the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority, led by President Andrea Beatrix Kádár, participated in the 68th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which began on 16 September 2024 in Vienna.

On the margins of the annual General Conference, the HAEA delegation held a number of bilateral meetings with representatives of the nuclear safety authorities of the United Kingdom, Egypt, Finland, Croatia, Canada, Romania, France and Türkiye. A Memorandum of Understanding focusing on the information and experience exchange was also signed with the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation of the United Arab Emirates. The meetings enabled the HAEA and its partners to review events of outstanding importance of the past year from a nuclear energy point of view and to evaluate their ongoing nuclear cooperation as well as various issues related to legal regulation of the nuclear field.

The main topic of the discussions with the French and Finnish authorities revolved around the experiences gained in relation to the lifetime extension of nuclear power plants, while discussions with the nuclear authorities of the United Arab Emirates, Romania, Finland, Türkiye and Egypt focused on the exchange of experience with respect to the oversight of the construction of new nuclear power plants and the negotiations with the British, Canadian, Czech and Polish nuclear regulatory authorities focused primarily on the exchange of experience related to new nuclear technologies. Mr. László Juhász, vice president of the HAEA attended a side event organized by the Ukrainian regulatory authority for VVER operating countries.

As Hungary holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union this semester Ms Kádár delivered the opening statement of the joint EU stand. More information about the opening of the EU Stand is available here.

Furthermore, as part of the traditional quadrilateral meeting between the Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, and this time attended by the Finnish and Polish nuclear regulatory authorities, the HAEA discussed issues of common interest.