The 68th Session of the General Conference, the main decision-making body of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), took place in Vienna from 16 to 20 September.
Italy participated in the proceedings with a delegation led by Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs Giorgio Silli, who has reiterated the importance of the IAEA’s presence in Ukraine, confirming Italy’s full support for the Agency’s activities and its Director General, Rafael Mariano Grossi, and underlining the ongoing risks to nuclear safety resulting from the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia power plant. The Undersecretary also urged Tehran to fully cooperate with the IAEA on the nuclear dossier, expressed firm condemnation of North Korea for its nuclear and missile program and highlighted Italy’s important financial and political contribution to the IAEA, by recalling the upcoming meeting of the “World Fusion Energy Group”, which will be held in Rome on November 6 and which will represent an important opportunity for discussion on the potential of fusion energy.
To reconfirm Italy’s commitment to sustainable development initiatives, food security and technical cooperation, Undersecretary Silli also spoke at the Scientific Forum organized in the context of the conference and entitled “Atoms4Food – Better Agriculture for Better Life”, illustrating the characteristics of the Mattei Plan for Africa in view of possible synergies with the IAEA’s activities. An Italian contribution of 3 million euros to the IAEA was confirmed to finance technical cooperation activities in developing countries.
With a special focus on nuclear applications for the benefit of health and sustainable development, Italy also promoted two side events organized on the topic of food safety and security. The first, entitled “Atoms4Food & Gender Mainstreaming” and co-organized with the IAEA’s “Women in Nuclear” association, framed the joint initiative launched by the IAEA and FAO to improve global food safety using isotopic techniques from a gender perspective, and saw the intervention of Undersecretary Silli, as well as the interventions of Director General Grossi, the Permanent Representative of South Africa to FAO, Amb. Nosipho Jezile and of the Permanent Representative of Burkina Faso in Vienna, Amb. Maimounata Ouattara. The second event, organized under the aegis of the African Group with the participation of the DG Grossi and of the Director of the “UN Food Systems Coordination Hub”, Stefanos Fotiou, provided a preview of the presentation of the “Group of Friends of Food Security”, an informal and open dialogue format on food security that aims to strengthen and systematize the many initiatives already undertaken in this sector by the Organizations and Agencies based in Vienna, and of which Italy will be co-president pro tempore.
In continuity with the previous editions, Italy has also arranged, on the sidelines of the conference, the setting up of an exhibition pavilion, which has made it possible to enhance, also through a program of short seminars and technical presentations, the many excellences of the Italian panorama in the field of research, development and industry relating to the nuclear sector, in particular in the medical, environmental, preservation of cultural heritage and food safety.
The conference also provided the opportunity to sign an agreement that made the Politecnico di Milano an IAEA “Collaborating Center” in the field of training and research related to nuclear applications.
