(As prepared for delivery)
Before I begin my remarks, let me welcome the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in recently submitting its application for IAEA membership.
Mr Chairperson,
Just a few weeks ago I was at the United Nations in New York, marking its 80th anniversary and delivering to the UN General Assembly our annual report.
Among discussions about the UN system and its relevance today, it was absolutely clear that the IAEA stands out as crucial to peace and security and that it delivers on the world’s priorities, from non-proliferation to economic development.
IAEA inspectors are back in the Islamic Republic of Iran and have carried out inspections and design information verifications at many of the facilities unaffected by June’s military attacks. But more engagement is needed to restore full inspections, including at the affected sites, so that Iran fulfils its obligations under its NPT Agreement. I am in regular contact with Tehran and urge Iran to facilitate Agency access at its affected facilities and especially of its inventories of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) and High Enriched Uranium (HEU), whose status needs urgently to be addressed. I will return to the subject in more detail later in my statement.
This month was notable for the key positive success in our mediation to allow indispensable repairs to the Dniprovska and Ferosplavna power lines, ending a month of loss of off-site electricity to the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant. The constructive engagement of both sides under the monitoring of the IAEA is another manifestation of the crucial role of the Agency in the very fragile and perilous situation at Zaporizhzhya NPP. This morning, I can confirm that a subsequent interruption of one of the lines has been resolved.
Here in Vienna this week, the IAEA’s Technical Assistance and Cooperation Committee met, and the Board has before it the proposed TC programme for the 2026–2027 cycle. This programme has been developed in close cooperation between the Secretariat and Member States, building on Country Programme Frameworks, and on national and regional development priorities. To give you an idea of its scope and geographical reach: it consists of 452 new project proposals, 92 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 115 in Africa, 88 in Europe and Central Asia, and 151 in Asia and the Pacific. Six new interregional projects have also been proposed. Almost seventy percent of the proposed programme focuses on food and agriculture, health and nutrition, and safety, reflecting the priorities of Member States.
As of the end of October this year, we have received €70.6 million in contributions to the TCF, which represents a rate of attainment of 72.1%. Though this is below the rate recorded at this time last year; I trust Member States will maintain their strong support. Receiving the outstanding contributions is crucial to implementing the programme you approved for this year. I urge all Member States to pay their contributions to the TCF in full and on time. I also invite Member States that are in a position to do so to support the programme with extrabudgetary contributions.
With the cleareyed view that budgets of our Member States are limited, I have been determined to increase the positive impact the IAEA makes across the world, most notably in those places that require our assistance most. We have done this through strengthened partnerships, including with non-traditional donors and development agencies.
It is also precisely why I launched the key initiatives: Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC), NUTEC Plastics, Rays of Hope, Atoms4Food and Atoms4NetZero. They are an integral part of the TC Programme, raising awareness, building partnerships and mobilizing resources to enable us to strengthen and expand our work in the key areas of pandemic preparedness, plastic pollution, access to cancer treatment, food security and clean energy.
The Atoms4Food initiative continues to improve food security by making agricultural systems more effective and sustainable using nuclear techniques and technology. This month, new missions, to assess the situation and the needs, were completed in Peru and Benin, with Türkiye next in line.
Through Zoonotic Disease Integrated Action (ZODIAC), we are using science and international collaboration to detect dangerous viruses and prevent the next pandemic. The initiative is helping to establish nine whole genome sequencing hubs in low- and middle-income countries. The Senegal hub, with support from ZODIAC and the VETLAB Network, sequenced the full genome of the Rift Valley Fever virus affecting Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia. This is crucial for outbreak control and just one example of how science is at the heart of what the IAEA does.
Rays of Hope is another example of our growing work with non-traditional partners. The IAEA and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are developing new training curricula to strengthen global capacity in paediatric cancer care, with experts from our Anchor Centres contributing to harmonized education for radiation oncologists, medical physicists and radiation therapists.
Rays of Hope and ZODIAC are supporting experts in making the most of AI. We launched a global 12-part webinar series on AI for medical physicists, attracting over 3,000 participants worldwide, to promote the safe and effective integration of AI in clinical practice. Meanwhile, ZODIAC is supporting AI-driven diagnostic model development in the fight against respiratory diseases.
Next week in Manila, the International High-Level Forum on NUTEC Plastics, hosted by the Philippines, will mark five years of NUTEC Plastics achievements.
Much of our work relies on the use of our laboratories and I am pleased to say the refurbishment of our Seibersdorf facilities under the ReNuAL programme is now complete. The space now includes a visitor centre where more than 30 interactive exhibits covering our full mandate inspire visitors, including future generations of scientists, engineers and problem-solvers. I encourage you to come and visit us in Seibersdorf. We are reaching out to schools, universities, educational centres and other areas of society to come and see what nuclear science and technology can do for the benefit of all.
Mr Chairperson,
The need for nuclear energy is no longer a topic of debate. The world agrees that we must invest in more nuclear capacity. Many countries are looking to nuclear for energy security and to meet their social, economic and environmental goals.
Today, sixty-three reactors totalling nearly 20 gigawatts of installed capacity are under construction in 15 countries, three of which are newcomers to nuclear power. About 30 countries – including African countries – are looking to build their first reactors.
The growing global momentum behind nuclear is reflected in the data.
In 31 countries, 416 nuclear power reactors, making up more than 376 gigawatts of installed capacity, are providing almost 10 per cent of the world’s total electricity generation.
The upward momentum is reflected in the IAEA’s latest projections. Its high-case scenario shows global nuclear power generating capacity increasing more than two and a half times to 992 gigawatts by 2050. In the low-case projections, capacity rises 50 per cent to 561 gigawatts. Small modular reactors, or SMRs, account for about one quarter of the capacity added in the high case and for about 5 per cent in the low case scenario.
Achieving the high case scenario will bring with it greater economic growth, greater energy security and a greater mitigation of carbon emissions. The IAEA is supporting its Member States towards that end, including through its work with the G20, the G7 and the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP).
In October, I travelled to Durban, South Africa, for the first ever high level G20 meeting on nuclear energy, where I stressed the significant interest in Africa for nuclear power and the IAEA’s support to making it happen. A few weeks later, at the G7 meeting of ministers of energy and the environment, I discussed the return to realism about nuclear energy and the steps necessary to unlock its full potential.
At COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the IAEA held more than a dozen events at its Pavilion “Atoms4Climate”, engaging Member States and partners across themes such as SMRs, climate-smart agriculture, water and soil protection, fusion energy, and blue carbon ecosystems.
Following the World Bank Group’s decision to end the decades-long exclusion of nuclear energy from its financing instruments, we have been working closely together to operationalize this historic shift, including the identification of a first project. This momentum is now expanding across the international financial community. I have recently concluded new MoUs with the OPEC Fund for International Development and with the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), both aimed at strengthening collaboration on the financing of nuclear energy, including support for countries considering nuclear power. These partnerships mark an important step in building the financial architecture needed to help countries deploy nuclear energy, including in the form of SMRs, as part of their long-term energy strategies.
The AI–nuclear nexus is growing fast. Technology companies are turning to nuclear power, notably also to Small Modular Reactors, to power data centres, while AI is helping make nuclear systems safer, smarter and more efficient. On 3-4 December, the IAEA will host the first ever International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Energy at our headquarters here in Vienna. The Symposium will explore how nuclear energy can help meet growing electricity demand from the data centres driving AI and the ways AI can support the nuclear power industry.
Through the Nuclear Harmonization and Standardization Initiative (NHSI), we are bringing together, in two separate tracks, industry and regulators from around the world. This is key, because SMRs will be a globally traded technology, requiring international collaboration on regulation and design. As we meet, NHSI participants are collecting examples and lessons on regulatory cooperation; and two further technical documents are expected to be published by the end of this year. In addition, a pilot multinational pre-licensing joint review of the EAGLES reactor has begun, with involvement of regulators of Belgium and Romania, and Italy as observer.
Further – but not that much further – down the line, we see fusion energy moving towards commercialisation. To support its journey, the IAEA held the 30th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference and the 2nd Ministerial Meeting of the World Fusion Energy Group in Chengdu last month, bringing together participants from governments, research institutions, and industry. At the conference, we launched new international guidance to assist countries in establishing national fusion programmes and designated the Southwestern Institute of Physics as an IAEA Collaborating Centre on Research and Training in Fusion Energy.
The IAEA has been closely involved in the development of the ITER project since the beginning and I, in my role as IAEA Director General, remain the depository of the ITER Agreement. This month I saw for myself the steady and confident advances this important and unique international fusion energy project is making. ITER is a major player in supporting fusion development and early demonstration and commercialization. Our efforts through the World Fusion Energy Group align, and they reinforce the necessary coherence and convergence in global efforts to develop fusion energy. I toured the facility and met with ITER Director General Pietro Barabaschi and Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, chairman of CEA – both agreed to support the IAEA’s Lise Meitner programme. Therefore, in 2026, the next cohort of our programme for early to mid-career women will head to ITER and CEA sites in Cadarache for technical tours and lectures, networking, mentoring and leadership sessions.
Making sure the sector has the talent it needs is also important in the legal branch. The use of nuclear technology and material for the benefit of all rests on a specialized legal framework that needs to be kept up to task in a continuously changing environment. It is a complex and interdisciplinary section of the legal field. That is why three years ago we launched the IAEA’s University Partnership Programme on Nuclear Law. This pilot initiative has now come to fruition. Through the IAEA’s support, including training of professors and teaching staff, designing of syllabi, development of teaching methodology and provision of teaching materials, six academic institutions located in Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Jamaica, South Africa and the UAE now offer postgraduate courses in nuclear law, taught by each institution’s own faculty staff and as part of their standard academic programme leading to recognized higher education qualifications.
Mr Chairperson,
At the beginning of December, the IAEA will hold the International Conference on Nuclear and Radiological Emergencies, hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, focussing on how emergency preparedness and response can adapt to new technologies, emerging threats, and increasingly complex risk environments.
Today, the greatest risk to nuclear safety remains the war in Ukraine. Just because an accident has not yet happened, does not mean it can’t. In fact, the risk is growing as the military conflict is escalating.
Since early May this year, the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant had been relying on just one off-site power line. In late September the plant was disconnected from that last remaining line. This resulted in the tenth and by far longest total loss of off-site power event since the start of the conflict, increasing greatly the risk of a nuclear accident.
Following successful negotiations with Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the activities to repair the two power lines – Dniprovska and Ferosplavna – commenced on 18 October on both sides of the frontline, and off-site power from Ukraine’s electrical grid to the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant was able to be restored. Agency staff observed the repair works in the field. A subsequent interruption of the Dniprovska has already been resolved.
I once again call for the full compliance, at all times, with the IAEA’s Five Concrete Principles. It is of paramount importance that a nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is prevented.
Meanwhile, even with all six reactors remaining in cold shutdown, a longer-term solution for cooling water at Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant needs to be found.
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is not the only plant affected by the instability of the electricity grid. Military activity continues to plague the power grid throughout Ukraine. Khmelnytskyy and Rivne NPPs have been operating at reduced capacity for almost two weeks, due to damages, including very recent ones, to electrical substations critical for nuclear safety and security.
The Agency continues to monitor the status of Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure, focusing on electrical substations, critical nodes in a country’s electrical grid where voltage levels are transformed and controlled to ensure reliable power transmission.
Last month the Chornobyl site completed temporary repairs on some damages on the New Safe Confinement (NSC) as a result of February’s drone strike. Nevertheless, the NSC has not yet regained its ability to perform the confinement function and the IAEA will conduct, in the coming weeks, a comprehensive safety assessment of the NSC.
Since the start of the armed conflict, the Agency has delivered over €20 million worth of specialized equipment and supplies—more than 170 shipments—to support Ukraine’s safe and secure operation of nuclear and related facilities, including electrical equipment, radiation monitoring, medical support, and isotope hydrology capacity-building.
Meanwhile, the IAEA continues to verify the safety of ALPS-treated water discharge from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan.
Under additional measures, experts from Belgium, China, France, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, and Switzerland are participating in these activities, adding transparency to the assessment.
Tritium concentrations in the discharged water remains far below operational limits and align with the international safety standards.
Task Force missions will continue to review all relevant Japanese technical and regulatory aspects.
Mr Chairperson,
You have before you my quarterly report on the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
On 9 September 2025, I signed an agreement with Foreign Minister Araghchi in Cairo that provides an understanding of the procedures for Agency inspections, notifications and safeguards implementation in Iran, in the aftermath of the military attacks in June.
Since then, Iran has facilitated access to the Agency for inspections and design information verification, with advanced notice, at almost all the unaffected facilities in Tehran. This is welcome.
The Agency has yet to receive from Iran a report for the affected facilities and associated nuclear material which, in line with its obligations under the safeguards agreement, needs to be provided without delay. To date, the Agency has not conducted verification activities at any of the nuclear facilities in Iran affected by the military attacks.
Though I note Iran’s cooperation on inspections at a number of facilities, further constructive engagement is needed. I urge Iran to facilitate the full and effective implementation of safeguards activities in Iran in accordance with its NPT Safeguards Agreement and I reiterate my disposition to work with Iran on this matter.
As I have already said, the establishment of the current status of Iran’s inventories of LEU and HEU needs to be addressed urgently. The Agency’s 5-month-long lack of access to this nuclear material in Iran means the material’s verification – according to standard safeguards practice – is long overdue.
It is critical the Agency be able to verify this material as soon as possible.
In the Syrian Arab Republic, I met His Excellency President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in June. He agreed to cooperate with full transparency to clarify, resolve and close the outstanding safeguards issues to do with Syria’s past nuclear activities.
As soon as conditions allow, we plan to visit Dair Alzour to conduct further analysis, access relevant documentation and to talk to those involved in past nuclear activities.
I am committed to achieving clarity regarding past nuclear activities in Syria in order to bring matters to a resolution.
The Secretariat has continued to engage Australia and Brazil on safeguards-relevant aspects of their respective naval nuclear propulsion programmes. I have provided two reports with updates on the consultations and will continue to keep the Board and Member States informed on relevant developments.
The Board has before it for approval a draft Additional Protocol to the Safeguards Agreement between the Agency and the Kingdom of the Netherlands concluded in connection with the NPT and Protocol I to the Treaty of Tlatelolco.
The number of States with safeguards agreements in force remains 191, and 144 of these States have additional protocols in force. I look forward to the remaining three States Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons without comprehensive safeguards agreements bringing such agreements into force without delay. I also encourage States that have not yet concluded additional protocols to do so as soon as possible. I am pleased to say that since the last Board meeting in September, Grenada has amended its original Small Quantities Protocol. I reiterate my calls for the remaining 12 States with SQPs based on the original standard text to amend or rescind them as soon as possible.
I will carry on my efforts to strengthen the indispensable legal framework on which the continued peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology rest.
The IAEA continues to monitor the nuclear programme of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The Agency has observed that the 5MW(e) reactor at Yongbyon likely continues to operate in its seventh cycle. Between January and September 2025, indicators were observed at the Radiochemical Laboratory consistent with the reprocessing of a core load of irradiated fuel from the reactor’s sixth operating cycle.
The ongoing operation of enrichment facilities at Kangson and Yongbyon is of serious concern.
In addition, the Agency is continuing to monitor the construction of a new building at Yongbyon which has dimensions and features similar to the Kangson enrichment plant.
There are indications that the light water reactor (LWR) at Yongbyon continued in stable operation until early-August 2025 but has likely been shut down since then.
There were no indications of significant changes at the Nuclear Test Site at Punggye-ri, which remains prepared to support a nuclear test.
The continuation and further development of the DPRK’s nuclear programme are clear violations of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and are deeply regrettable. The Agency continues to maintain its enhanced readiness to play its essential role in verifying the DPRK’s nuclear programme.
Mr Chairperson,
Partnerships and Resource Mobilization remain a priority for me, as we cannot bring the benefits of nuclear science and technology to our recipients alone. In the past two years, we had a 31% increase in extrabudgetary contributions, and support from non-traditional donors more than doubled – reflecting growing recognition of the Agency’s work. In March, we launched a US $2.6 million water resources management project with the World Bank and Niger. In June I signed an agreement with the World Bank under which the IAEA and the Bank will work together in supporting the safe and secure use of nuclear energy in developing countries; it marks the Bank’s first concrete step in decades towards reengaging with nuclear energy.
Dear colleagues,
In accordance with the Rules and Regulations, I informed Member States through the Quarterly Note of the Financial Situation of the Agency issued on 13 November and further updated on 18 November, that the Agency currently faces a serious liquidity situation due to delays in payments of 2025 assessed contributions.
The total outstanding balance of overdue assessed contributions amounts to approximately €135 million.
Mindful of the current challenges, and as per our practice, the Secretariat has been requesting that Member States pay their outstanding 2025 and advance 2026 assessed contributions to help the Agency alleviate the situation. This has allowed the Agency to have enough funds to cover November operations.
I thank those who have already advanced their payments and additionally appeal to those in a position to do so, to do the same.
It should be noted that if significant payments are not received soon, a situation could occur, in which, despite using the Working Capital Fund in full, the Agency might not be able to meet its legal obligations, including payroll. We cannot ignore this.
I appeal to those Member States with outstanding contributions, to settle their overdue payments in a timely manner.
The current challenges can be overcome, and I am confident that with your support we will continue to be able to do our indispensable work.
