Norway elected to serve on IAEA Board of Governors

At the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference on Thursday 29 September, Norway was elected to be one of the 35 members of the agency’s board. There are 138 member countries in the IAEA, which is based in Vienna.

“We will use this opportunity to reinforce the IAEA’s efforts to find political solutions to Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear programmes,” commented Foreign Minister Jan Petersen.

The main tasks of the IAEA are to ensure safe and peaceful utilisation of nuclear power, prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and help less developed countries to apply nuclear technology in the fields of agriculture and health.

“The efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to new countries and nuclear material and technology to terrorist organisations are of the utmost importance,” underlined Mr Petersen.

“As a member of the IAEA Board of Governors, Norway will be in a good position to continue its efforts to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, an issue that I raised in connection with this autumn’s UN summit.”