IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the world’s center of cooperation in the nuclear field. It was set up in 1957 within the United Nations family. The Agency works with its Member States, numbering at the present moment 145, in three major fields, namely control over nuclear material, safety and security in the use of nuclear energy and dissemination of nuclear science and technology. Bulgaria is a country co-founder of the IAEA and is a full pledged member as of its establishment.

The IAEA Secretariat is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. Operational liaison and regional offices are located in Geneva, Switzerland; New York, USA; Toronto, Canada; and Tokyo, Japan. The IAEA runs or supports research centers and scientific laboratories in Vienna and Seibersdorf, Austria; Monaco; and works in close co-operation with the University in Trieste, Italy (link to www.iaea.org).

The IAEA Secretariat is a team of 2200 professional and support staff from more than 90 countries including from Bulgaria. The Bulgarian specialists working at the present moment there number 8, two of them working in the Department of Nuclear Energy and six in the Department of Safeguards.

The Agency is led by Director General Yukiya Amano (Japan) and six Deputy Directors General who head the following departments:

• Department of Management – David B. Waller (USA)
• Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications – Werner Burkart (Germany)
• Department of Safeguards – Olli Heinonen (Finland)
• Department of Technical Co-operation – Ana Maria Cetto (Mexico)
• Department of Nuclear Energy – Yuri Sokolov (Russia)
• Department of Nuclear Safety and Security – Tomihiro Taniguchi (Japan).

Director General of the IAEA is the depositary of the following key international conventions and legal agreements in the field of the peaceful use of atomic energy:

• The Agency’s Safeguards System;
• Model Protocol Additional to the Agreement(s) Between State(s) and the Agency for the Application of Safeguards;
• Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident;
• Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency;
• Convention on Nuclear Safety;
• Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management;
• Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Material;
• Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage.

Bulgaria is a party to the all of the above mentioned legally binding documents.

IAEA programmes and budgets are set through decisions of its policymaking bodies - the 35-member Board of Governors. The election of members of the Board of Governors is carried out during the annual General Conference of all Member States. Until this moment Bulgaria has been elected member of the Board of Governors 8 times on a rotation principle, the last time being in the period 2001-2003. The next cycle for participation in the activities of the Board has been planned for 2011-2013.

Reports on IAEA activities are submitted periodically or as cases warrant to the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly. IAEA financial resources include the regular budget and voluntary contributions, the regular budget being composed of a Euro and Dollar component. The Regular Budget for 2009 amounts to Euro 236 692 573 and 58 150 017 US Dollars and the target for voluntary contributions to the Technical Co-operation Fund for 2009 is $85 million. Bulgaria’s contributions for 2009 are 37 136 Euro and 8 807 US dollars to the regular budget and 16 150 to the Technical Co-operation Fund.

Bulgaria implements the co-operation with the IAEA mainly through national and regional projects from the Programmes for Technical Co-operation of the Department of Technical Co-operation. On separate projects interaction is carried out also with the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security and the Department of Nuclear Energy. Inspectors from the Department of Safeguards carry out regular inspections on the correspondence of the declared and existing nuclear material in the nuclear facilities in Bulgaria.

During the years the national projects being implemented have been in the field of nuclear safety, development of nuclear power, application of nuclear technologies and nuclear science in industry, medicine, agriculture and others. The regional projects as a whole cover the same fields but are implemented jointly with other countries from the Europe region for the purpose of solving common for these countries problems.

Bulgaria participates with 4 national projects in the Programme Cycle 2009-2011 of the Department of Technical Co-operation. Below are listed their topics, end users and funding provided by the IAEA for their implementation:

• Managing Workforce Flow and Risk of Nuclear Knowledge Loss – Kozloduy NPP– $ 139 225;
• Developing and Validating Molecular Nuclear Technologies for Rapid Diagnostics of Foot and Mouth Disease and Genotyping of Indigenous Cattle Breeds – University of Forestry - $ 180 235;
• Introducing Quality Control Techniques and Optimizing Positron Emission Tomography Radiopharmaceutical Production to Improve Patient Care – Ministry of Health - $ 180 000;
• Further Upgrading of the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency for Nuclear and Radiation Safety – Nuclear Regulatory Agency - $ 220 470.

The regional projects in which Bulgaria will participate in the forthcoming cycle are over 20.

The expectations of the IAEA secretariat are that the EU member states will orient themselves towards diminishing their participation as recipients of technical assistance from the IAEA and hence increasing their contribution to other countries from the Europe region.
The Nuclear Regulatory Agency of Bulgaria is the official channel for implementation of the co-operation with the IAEA. Proposals for fellowships, scientific visits and training under various programmes and projects of the IAEA are submitted to the NRA for transmittal to the IAEA Secretariat.