IAEA Peaceful Uses Initiative Reaches €100 Million Funding Milestone

An International Atomic Energy Agency initiative to help countries benefit from peaceful uses of nuclear technology reached a funding milestone this month with 100 million euros received in voluntary contributions since its launch in 2010.

The Peaceful Uses Initiative (PUI) has become an important vehicle for raising extra-budgetary contributions which supplement the IAEA’s Technical Cooperation Fund to support technical cooperation and other Agency projects involving peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

The PUI contributions have financed a broad range of IAEA peaceful uses activities, in areas including water and environment, food and agriculture, human and animal health, nuclear safety and nuclear power infrastructure.

“The PUI has been instrumental in supporting a wide variety of IAEA activities aimed at helping Member States achieve their development objectives,” said IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano.

The PUI has also allowed the IAEA to be more flexible and quicker in responding to emergencies, as demonstrated during the outbreaks of the Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014 and of the Zika virus this year in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The PUI has contributed to mobilizing resources for the planned upgrade of the eight IAEA Nuclear Sciences and Applications laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria, which opened their doors in 1962. As part of this modernization project, the IAEA has begun building a new laboratory that will enable it to intensify work on using a nuclear technique to control insect pests, including mosquitoes that spread Zika and other diseases.

To date, PUI financial contributions have been received from 21 Member States as well as the European Commission. They helped the implementation of approximately 190 projects that benefited more than 150 countries.

“Membership of the IAEA continues to grow, and demand for our services in all areas of nuclear sciences and applications is increasing. The PUI has been an effective mechanism in mobilizing additional resources to meet this growing demand. We will continue to put these resources to work for the benefit of Atoms for Peace and Development in the coming years,” Mr Amano said.