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Statement by Alexander Rumyantsev, Russian Minister of Atomic Energy,

in the United Nations First Committee on Disarmament and International Security,

New York, November 5, 2003

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

Daily News Bulletin

November 11, 2003

Esteemed ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, let me thank you for the honor accorded me to speak jointly with the US Energy Secretary, Mr. Abraham, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of United States President Dwight Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" Address to the UN General Assembly.

At that time, at the dawn of the atomic era, he spoke for nuclear weapons to be removed from soldiers' hands and turned over to those who would know how to use atoms for peaceful purposes. Only then, he said, "can this greatest of destructive forces be developed into a great boon for the benefit of all mankind."

In development of this thesis, Eisenhower proposed that an international atomic energy agency should be set up under the aegis of the United Nations. The agency, in his opinion, should attract talented scientists from all countries of the world to study the methods of using atomic energy for peaceful purposes. A special purpose, he assumed, "would be to provide abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of the world. Thus the contributing powers would be dedicating some of their strength to serve the needs rather than the fears of mankind."

The launching of the world's first nuclear plant, of 5 MW capacity, in Obninsk, Russian Federation was actually a response to Dwight Eisenhower's appeal to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The impact of this event on further nuclear power development had a many times greater effect than this plant's capacity itself. The spread of nuclear technologies across the world began to pick up speed rapidly. In the atom's energy many saw the path of swift industrial development and the achievement of a high technological level.

A testimony to this was the Geneva Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, in which about 1,500 scientists and specialists from 73 countries took part. It considered energy requirements of individual countries and the role which atomic energy was going to play within the coming decades. Nuclear reactor types were discussed, along with nuclear safety, the production of isotopes and other themes, many of which, but now in a new quality are being discussed at present too.

In 1956 Kurchatov in his speech at Harwell, United Kingdom, for the first time described the research being carried out in the Soviet Union on the possibility of using thermonuclear processes for electricity generation, which can be regarded as the beginning of international cooperation in this field.

In 1957, that is four years after the proposal made from the UN rostrum, the International Atomic Energy Agency became a reality. Today this is a respected and authoritative organization ensuring the international nuclear weapons nonproliferation regime and the safe development of nuclear power. The short chronology of the initial period shows that given a goodwill and purposefulness aimed at solving common problems, impressive results can be achieved. Today the world, despite the fact that we have moved sufficiently far away from the moment of the end of the Cold War, when it teetered on the brink of total nuclear destruction, has not become safer, for there have appeared new dangers and challenges. Today we have to talk about the real possibility of WMD and related materials and technologies getting into the hands of international terrorists.

We are convinced that the answer to the new challenges is the active joint work of all the countries on a solid foundation of international law, the preservation and strengthening of the regime of international treaties and the consolidation of strategic stability on the basis of blending the various approaches to resolving the contradictions that exist.

In this system of measures, in our view, an effective international instrument for containing the threat of the proliferation of nuclear weapons and a major factor of ensuring regional and global stability was and remains the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the NPT, of 1970, to which practically all the countries of the world are parties today. It is currently undergoing not easy trials. That is why Russia attaches exceptional importance to the preparatory process for the 2005 Review Conference. We are convinced that this process should be comprehensively used with a view to finding solutions to existing questions to strengthen both the Treaty itself and the international nonproliferation regime as a whole.

The ratification this past May, both in Russia and the USA, of the Russian-American Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions and its practical implementation to reduce the nuclear warheads currently at each country's disposal to 1,700-2,200 by December 31, 2012, demonstrate our commitment to nuclear disarmament.

Esteemed ladies and gentlemen,

Marking the fiftieth anniversary of Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" address, we can say that today too energy provision for man's functioning is a key factor of his well-being. People's quality of life and the degree of economic development are determined by the level of energy consumption and, in particular, that of electricity.

Yet the per-capita gap in energy provision between individual regions of the world still remains very considerable. Moreover, taking into account world population growth and the predicted economic development, primarily in the developing countries, a steep rise in demand for electricity is inevitable.

At the same time the growth of world fuel and energy requirements, with the resource and ecological limitations of traditional power, gives urgency to the timely preparation of a new power technology capable of taking upon itself a substantial part of the increase in energy needs. In this situation it appears to us that the use of nuclear energy can and should be the basis for building a power system ensuring sustainable, environmentally safe, economically beneficial and socially acceptable development and improvement in all areas of human activity in the 21st century.

Nuclear power is already a technically developed and time-tested branch of power technology, holding a noticeable place in world electric power production - about 16 percent. Its further large-scale development depends both on further progress in ensuring its safety, enhancing its competitiveness, solving the problems of resource supply and radioactive waste management and on the ability of the world nuclear community to correctly inform the public about the state of nuclear power.

The conduct of extensive research and development work, which is designed to ensure large-scale nuclear power development, should be accomplished within the framework of effective international cooperation.

Three years ago, at the Millennium Summit here, at the UN, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin came up with an initiative for the provision of energy for the sustainable development of humanity, for a cardinal solution of the problems of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and for ecological improvement on the Earth. This initiative rests on the need to provide humanity with a long-term supply of energy by a safe and ecologically acceptable method and the need to prevent its use for the purpose of creating nuclear weapons.

This initiative is currently being implemented within the framework of the IAEA's International Project on Innovative Reactors and Fuel Cycles, known as INPRO, and the Generation IV International Project, initiated by the US.

A significant event of this year in international cooperation on nuclear and radiation security was, undoubtedly, the March Conference on Security of Radioactive Sources, organized in Vienna by the joint efforts of the Agency, Russia and the US. The growth and globalization of the terrorist threat sets us the task of excluding the slightest possibility of radioactive materials getting into terrorist hands. We reaffirm our readiness to follow the recommendations set forth in the finalized Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources.

Another aspect of the security problem is the continuing increase in the world of stocks of spent nuclear fuel from research reactors and reactors of nuclear generating stations. According to IAEA data, over the existence of nuclear power more than 200,000 tons of irradiated nuclear fuel has been accumulated in the world. Annually this figure is now increasing by 10,000 tons. For a number of years now, specialists have been drawing attention to the necessity to search for a rational and safe method (or methods) of spent fuel handling. As of now, this task, in consequence of its extensiveness and relevance to virtually every region, has moved into the category of urgent global tasks.

It appears that the time is ripe for a uniting of the efforts of different countries to solve this task common to us. The construction in the long term under IAEA auspices of several large international SNF handling centers fitted with state-of-the-art technologies and the appropriate physical protection can ensure the fulfillment of nuclear and radiation security requirements and contribute to strengthening the global regime for nuclear nonproliferation.

We are ready for such cooperation.

We also are developing cooperation with many countries of the world in the fields of the conversion of our nuclear weapons complex and the disposition of decommissioned Russian nuclear submarines. The United States, Japan and the European Union remain our principal partners.

A constant concern is the coordination of international cooperation in Russia with respect to nuclear materials accounting, control and physical protection. In this connection it is difficult to overestimate the significance in the present-day situation of the coordination of the international efforts to eliminate the risks of nuclear terrorism. In the light of the decisions adopted by the G8 leaders this year at Evian, we shall seek the universalizing of the principles earlier endorsed in Kananaskis by the leaders of the G8 countries, aimed at preventing access for terrorists or their backers to weapons of mass destruction.

We shall continue to cooperate with all the concerned countries, since we are certain that nuclear power is the first of the known large-scale power technologies which allows us time for a respite and gives us a chance to win in the race of mankind with the degradation of the environment, inevitable when using organic resources. It carries with it new practical possibilities of cognition and management of the world and provides new human development models.

Thank you for your attention.