The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency released a factsheet on their Incident and Trafficking Database on Monday, citing 168 incidents in 2023 in 31 States. The IAEA Incident and Trafficking Database (ITDB) contains information on smuggling or otherwise illegal possession or sale of nuclear material, as well as the unauthorized disposal or discovery of lost radioactive sources, according to the IAEA’s press release on the database.
“The recurrence of incidents confirms the need for vigilance and continuous improvement of the regulatory oversight to control, secure and properly dispose radioactive material,” Elena Buglova, director of the IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Security, said in the press release.
The IAEA released their database and factsheet at the International Conference on Nuclear Security this week.
The Department of Energy on Friday released instructions for obtaining a waiver to import Russian uranium for commercial use, now that the U.S. has made those imports generally illegal and will ban them altogether by 2028.
There are caps on the amount of Russian uranium that a company can import under a waiver. The limits vary from year to year, ranging from about 260 metric tons, or roughly 507 U.S. tons, to around 476 metric tons, or approximately 525 U.S. tons, according to DOE’s guidelines.
The International Conference on Nuclear Security, hosted by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, took place this week in Vienna, Austria.
David Turk, the US Energy Deputy Secretary, commented on the annual effort to “strengthen the global nuclear security architecture in a time of great change…” in his opening remarks at the conference.
Obituary
The antinuclear activist Patty Ameno died May 10 in hospice care in Butler County, Pa., according to an obituary published Sunday in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
Ameno’s activism led to lawsuits against the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. (NUMEC) – Apollo facility in Apollo, Pa., a commercially operated producer of nuclear fuel for civilian power plants and Navy surface ships and submarines.
