Statement by Canada to the IAEA Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science, Technology and Applications

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Vienna, Austria, November 26, 2024

Delivered by H.E. Mr. Troy Lulashnyk, Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna

At the outset, I would like to thank our co-chairs from Ghana and Finland and thank the IAEA Secretariat for their organization of this important conference.

The IAEA, as a leader developing nuclear science and technology, is uniquely placed to help Member States meet key development challenges. It offers practical and innovative solutions to enhance food security, improve health and foster efficient water management, to name only a few. These are essential to the achievement of the SDGs and they must be supported.

Nuclear technology also offers solutions to another one of the world’s most pressing challenges: climate change. Canada has committed to nuclear energy as a key element in its own plan to lower emissions to net zero by 2050. We are not alone. Increasingly, the international community is looking to nuclear energy to help address climate change and to meet the growing demands for reliable, clean energy. As such, Canada very much supports Atoms4NetZero and ongoing efforts to facilitate the safe, secure and timely deployment of Small Modular Reactors.

Canada is a significant donor to the IAEA Nuclear Security Fund, Peaceful Uses Initiative, and Technical Cooperation Fund. We are proud, for example, of our collaboration with the IAEA to help Member States establish the regulatory and legal frameworks needed to launch safe and secure nuclear energy programs. Canada has committed over $25 million to support the Agency’s Regulatory Infrastructure Development Program, benefitting over 86 States in Africa, Latin America and the Indo-Pacific. This work directly enables more and more countries to benefit from nuclear technology.

With our longstanding, robust nuclear sector, Canada is contributing in other ways too. We are a leading supplier of medical isotopes. We support fellowship programs, host technical events and provide expertise and training. The Regulatory Cooperation Forum, which Canada chairs, enables new nuclear nations to develop the regulatory programs in support of nuclear energy and applications.

A key pillar of our nuclear policy is our commitment to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy as enshrined in the NPT. In Canada, we have committed to ensure greater accessibility, diversity and gender equality amongst the new generation of scientists. Equally, Canada continues to support Agency efforts to ensure that gender mainstreaming is taken into account in the design, implementation and monitoring of its Technical Cooperation projects. Doing so will support results-based management and the contribution of the Agency to the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 5.

In closing, please allow me to reaffirm Canada’s unshakeable commitment to the work of the Agency in advancing the many benefits of nuclear science and technology. Innovation is, simply put, the key that unlocks our potential to adapt and prepare for the future.

We are collectively confronted simultaneously with a multitude of global, existential crises and we must do much more, much faster, together.

Thank you.