President of TENMAK Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir BALIKÇI, Head of Nuclear Energy Research Institute (NÜKEN) Prof. Dr. Veysi Erkcan ÖZCAN and IAEA National Liaison Officer (NLO) of Türkiye Dr. Berna ÖZYARDIMCI participated in the 66th General Conference, organized by the IAEA, in Vienna on 26-30 September 2022. The General Conference is the highest decision making body of the IAEA and attended by 175 member countries.
In the margin of the General Conference, the programme, the budget and the issues presented by Board of Governors, the Director General and the member states, were decided on and the national statements were presented by the member states. Our national statement was presented by Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Dr. Alparslan BAYRAKTAR.
President Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir BALIKÇI and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Türkiye to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Vienna, Ambassador Mr. Levent ELER represented our country at the opening of the conference, which was held with the participation of senior officials of the member countries.
As a development that makes our country proud, Türkiye has been elected as a board member of the Board of Governors along with Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Kenya, Namibia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Uruguay for the period 2022-2023. The Board of Governors is one of the two policy-making bodies of the IAEA, along with the annual General Conference of IAEA Member States.
Our delegation participated in bilateral meetings and side events organized by the IAEA Technical Departments and Member States during the 66th General Conference.
At the margin of the 66th Conference of the IAEA, our delegation;
Came together with the Turkic Republics to develop cooperation in the fields of peaceful application of nuclear energy and to exchange views on the re-activation of the Eurasian Nuclear Sciences and Applications Conference. Delegations of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan were invited.
Our delegation headed by Permanent Representative Ambassador Mr. Levent ELER and President, Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir BALIKÇI made a sincere meeting with Pakistani Delegation headed by Pakistani Ambassador Aftab Khokher and senior officials of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) on enhancing research and development opportunities with the IAEA in the fields of nuclear techniques and radiation applications, and cooperation in human resources development.
Information about the current capacity and breakthroughs of INVAP was obtained, and possible cooperation potentials were discussed with the Argentine Delegation headed by Tulio Calderon, Vice President of INVAP Nuclear Division.
The current situation of Türkiye's nuclear programme was evaluated with the IAEA Nuclear Infrastructure Development Department together with delegations of relevant agencies of our Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
The opportunities of our country to host the Nuclear Information Management School, a course held several times a year by the IAEA that provides participants with specific education and training in the development and implementation of nuclear information management programs in nuclear science and technology organizations, were evaluated with the delegation from the IAEA Information Management Department.
A sincere meeting, between TENMAK Delegation, technical managers of our IAEA National projects and IAEA Technical Cooperation European Region and Director Ms. Eve-Külli Kalla, Department Head and Country Program Manager Jing Zhang, was held in which our current program and national projects were evaluated, by thanking our Agency for the successful and active role of Türkiye in our region.
During the meeting between our delegation and JINR (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) officials, Dr. Marina Tumanova Advisor of JINR Board of Directors, Prof Boris Sharkov Russian Academy of Sciences and Otilla Ana Culicov Director General of Neutron Physics Department and Secretary General of the Scientific Delegation informed our delegation about JINR's activities, member countries and their capacities. Our delegation informed JINR delegation about our activities carried out at NÜKEN. After the exchange of information, possible cooperation opportunities were discussed and a delegation from our Agency was invited to Dubna to examine JINR.
Ynte STOCKMANN, Program Manager for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy and Nuclear Safety from the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation,, wanted to meet with President Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir BALIKÇI and invited Nuclear Energy Research Institute (NÜKEN) and Radioactive Waste Management Department to participate on various issues in the nuclear fields in new EU projects.