The Hon Kevin Rudd MP   Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs



Nuclear safety: every country's responsibility

Articles and op-ed

28 April 2011

Twenty-five years after the world's worst nuclear disaster occurred at Chornobyl, events at  Fukushima have again reminded us of the harm that nuclear accidents can cause.

While it would be wrong to equate the two accidents, one thing is clear: we cannot continue  with a business-as-usual approach to nuclear safety.

More international involvement is required in the regulation of safety standards at civil  nuclear facilities.

We also need to ensure better international coordination of nuclear crisis response and  consequence management.

There are very sound reasons for this.

A nuclear accident in one country can, and does, have consequences in other countries. We  saw this all too alarmingly in the case of Chornobyl.

Moreover, people around the world want to have greater assurances of the safety of nuclear  energy.

They deserve the highest level of confidence that we can offer about nuclear facilities. While  that confidence is of intrinsic importance, it is also a fact that, without it, the future of nuclear  energy cannot be assured.

Australia has a direct interest and role to play in an intensified focus on nuclear safety.

We have a strong reputation as a responsible supplier of uranium. And we have a long history  of contribution to nuclear safety world-wide.

Australia sets firm conditions of supply in relation to safeguards and non-proliferation. We  should use what we have learned from promoting safeguards to also promote safety in viable  ways.

So what practically can we do?

Firstly, it is clear that we must now work to achieve greater international oversight of nuclear  safety under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

IAEA safety standards are currently held up as international best practice.  Many states are  committed to implementing these standards.  But there is no international legal mechanism to  oblige states to recognise or implement them.

So, how can we take this forward?

An initial step could be to explore the possibility of countries operating nuclear power plants  and other facilities concluding bilateral safety agreements with the IAEA.

This could open the way for the IAEA to expand its current safeguards inspection role to  include safety auditing. Such a move would facilitate better international benchmarking and  continuous improvement in reactor design and safety features, as well as regulations and  standards.

Second, governments should also consider ways of augmenting cooperation on emergency  response and consequence management.

To this end, the IAEA could appoint an independent panel of international experts, who could  analyse incidents and provide advice on dealing with them, without prejudice to national  prerogatives.

A third field for additional effort is the relationship between government and industry action.

More needs to be done to encourage industry to share in-house compliance techniques. There  should be no trade secrets on measures for meeting safety standards. Industry must stand  ready to implement the changes that the community expects and that governments require.

Much good work is being done by organisations such as the World Association of Nuclear  Operators, but it is also up to governments to foster such exchanges, since they are in many  cases principal stakeholders in their countries' nuclear industry.

In Australia's case, we will focus closely on cooperation with potential new nuclear energy  entrants in our region, urging the adoption of best practices for siting, construction and  operation of new nuclear facilities, regulation, emergency preparedness and safety culture.

Australia will be developing these proposals for consideration at the IAEA-hosted High-Level Conference on Nuclear Safety in June. UN Secretary General Ban and Russian  President Medvedev have made thoughtful contributions, which we look forward to  discussing. We encourage all nations to think about what we can do together to improve  nuclear safety.

Non-proliferation has long — and rightly — been the subject of concerted international  efforts under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and IAEA and national-level safeguards.

Nuclear security has received long overdue attention through President Obama's successful  push to commit 47 countries to work together to secure sensitive nuclear materials worldwide  within four years.

The time has now come — twenty-five years after the tragic accident at Chornobyl — to do  all we can to prevent nuclear incidents from happening, and to mitigate their impact when  they do occur.

This may be a long and complicated path, but it is one that we must take.

Media inquiries

Ã¯ÂÂ· Minister's office: (02) 6277 7500  Ã¯ÂÂ· DFAT Media Liaison: (02) 6261 1555



