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Australia, Bulgaria, Ghana, Hungary, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Ukraine signed a “statement of principles” that addresses prospects for expanding nuclear energy, including improved safeguards, international fuel service frameworks, and advanced technologies.
The five original GNEP partners – China, France, Japan, Russia and the US – also signed the statement. Another twenty-two countries are candidate partners and observers, making 38 countries in all that are somehow involved with the GNEP.
US energy secretary Sam Bodman said the GNEP, launched by US president George Bush in February 2006, is bringing together governments in pursuit of a common goal: the safe, global expansion of nuclear power.
The announcement followed the second GNEP ministerial meeting, which was held in Vienna on Sunday ahead of the 51st International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference, which began yesterday. The ministerial was attended by 38 nations and three international organisations.
Energy officials took part in sessions focused on reliable fuel services and infrastructure, which are considered integral to the GNEP’s development. The GNEP aims to establish fuel services and supplies to the world market, giving countries access to nuclear energy while reducing the risk of nuclear proliferation.
In order to address all aspects of fuel services, officials agreed to form a Nuclear Fuel Services Working Group under the GNEP, which will focus on practical measures and benefits for comprehensive fuel services, such as fuel leasing and other arrangements for spent fuel management.
IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei told the GNEP meeting the GNEP was “a major initiative that is badly needed, therefore very timely”.
He also spoke of the importance of multinational fuel cycle initiatives currently being formulated by several parties from around the world, including the IAEA, describing them as all good initiatives going in the right direction. “GNEP, however, is a much more ambitious and comprehensive proposal because it deals with all aspects of the fuel cycle, both the front end and the back end,” he said.
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>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
US Plans N-Fuel Deals For Nations Who Forgo Enrichment, Reprocessing (News No. 31, 6 February 2006)
Grants Start Studies Into Possible US Fuel Recycling Sites (News in Brief No. 1, 31 January 2007)
GNEP Partners To Agree On Common Goals (News in Brief No. 24, 6 September 2007)
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