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STATEMENT BY Mr. HU FUGUO
HEAD OF THE CHINESE DELEGATION
AT THE 33rd REGULAR SESSION OF THE
INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY GENERAL CONFERENCE
SEPTEMBER 1989
Mr. President,
At the outset, please allow me, on behalf of the Chinese delegation and in my
own name, congratulate you on your election as the President of the current
session. I am convinced that under your guidance and with the sincere
cooperation and efforts of all delegations, this session of the General
Conference will be crowned with success. I would also like to take this
opportunity to thank the Director General, Dr. Hans Blix, and all his
Secretariat staff for their energetic efforts during the past year.
Mr. President,
Since the 32nd session of the General Conference, the Agency has made
gratifying headway in promoting the peaceful uses of
nuclear energy throughout the world. It has done a great
deal of useful work to help the Member States develop
nuclear power and promote nuclear applications. Its
activities for fostering international cooperation in
the area of nuclear safety, facilitating research on
radioactive waste disposal and management, and
strengthening radiation protection guidance, and its
promulgation of the revised safety regulations for
nuclear power plants are generally welcomed by Member
States. The Agency should be given full credit for the
series of steps and measures it has taken to raise the
implementation rate of its technical cooperation
projects, to use effectively financial resources for
technical assistance, and to monitor and evaluate the
effect of technical assistance projects. Owing to the
concerted efforts of the Member States and the
secretariat, the Agency has played a positive and
effective role in the implementation of safeguards. We
hereby express our appreciation for all this. As a
country in the Asian and Pacific region, China views
with satisfaction the ever expanding areas of
cooperation covered by the Asian and Pacific regional
cooperative agreement and the positive results achieved
in this connection.
Naturally, while recognizing its achievements, we should be aware of the
difficulties facing the Agency. As a Member of the
Agency and of the Board of Governors, China considers
itself duty-bound to support the Agency in fulfilling
its important task in the field of peaceful uses of
nuclear energy, so that the Agency can rise up to the
challenge of the last decade of the 20th century with
renewed vigor.
Mr. President,
Such activities as nuclear applications and nuclear energy development and
use carried out by the Agency to realize its
"promotional” objectives hold great importance for the
majority of developing countries. Therefore, if the
Agency establish more projects and effectively finance
existing activities in this area, it will have a
positive bearing on the economic and social development
of these countries. In the view of the Chinese
delegation, the Agency should, fully taking into account
the needs of the developing countries, earmark a
reasonable share of its program and budget for projects
of nuclear applications and nuclear energy development
and use and thus maintain the appropriate balance
between the promotional and regulatory activities of the
Agency.
With the rapid industrialization of various countries in the world, the
issue of environmental protection has attracted growing
attention from the international community. As the
climatic and ecological impact of fossil fuels has
gradually come to be realized, nuclear energy can be of
great help in reducing environmental pollution and the
green-house effect and consequently contribute to the
sustained economic and social development of the world.
He believe that the Agency should further publicize such
merits of nuclear energy and continue its comparative
studies and review of the environmental and climatic
impacts, economics and risks of nuclear and other
sources of energy, with a view to winning public
understanding and acceptance of nuclear energy on the
basis of solid scientific proof.
The importance of nuclear safety is well-known. The Agency should continue
to treat the activities for reinforcing nuclear safety
and promoting greater international cooperation in this
respect as important component parts of its overall
activities. Since the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the
Agency has carried out numerous significant activities
related to nuclear safety and played an important role
in fostering international cooperation in this field.
However, in view of the Agency’s foreseeable financial
resources in the coming years, the Chinese delegation
hopes that the future program concerning nuclear safety
will give greater emphasis to operational safety and
accident prevention. In the field of radiation
protection, special attention should be given to
providing guidance to developing countries on the
appropriate management and safe use of radiation
sources.
Over recent years, the developing Members of the Agency have registered
encouraging progress in nuclear power development.
However, given financial and technological constraints,
such development is extremely unbalanced. We hope to see
a greater role of the Agency in assisting nuclear power
planning, spreading mature nuclear power technology,
strengthening the infrastructure needed by these
countries for nuclear power development and promoting
manpower training.
Mr. President,
I would now like to turn to the issues of the Agency’s regular budget and
financing of technical assistance.
As is well known, over the past decade, the Agency has beefed up its program
in areas like nuclear energy, nuclear safety and
safeguards, which undoubtedly has boosted the
development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy in the
world. Regrettably, insomuch as the Agency has
experienced the near zero growth in real terms of its
regular budgets in the 1980s, many projects that should
otherwise have been included in the program have been
left out. Inappropriate emphasis has also cropped up in
the program structure. In our opinion, the Agency should
timely adjust its budgetary policy and arrangements in
the light of the changing requirements of its Member
States. To maintain real zero growth in the budget over
an extended period of time is detrimental to the
Agency's ability to carry out the duties entrusted to it
by its Statute, and will undercut the viability and
vigor that it should maintain.
In connection with technical assistance financing, we have noted that owing
to current financial shortfalls, many projects that are
technically sound and socio-economically beneficial for
the developing countries have not received the kind of
support they deserve. Needless to say, the IPF approach
that the Agency has adopted since 1982 has been a good
attempt. However, this should not obscure the fact that
as people appreciate and indeed become dependent on such
approach, it objectively impairs the Agency's
imagination for finding other modalities to implement
its Resolution GC(XXV)/RES/388.
In order to ensure that technical assistance is truly financed on a
predictable, assured and adequate basis, the Chinese delegation suggests that
the Board review the implementation mechanism of IPF, so as to redress the
situation of falling short of IPF for several years running in payments actually
received, and make further efforts to look for other financing channels and
alternatives.
Mr. President,
The Chinese government attaches great importance to and supports the
Agency's work, and has taken an active part in its
activities. In the past year, China hosted in
cooperation with the Agency a series of activities,
e.g., the Training Seminar on INIS Input and Output, the
Second FAO/IAEA Research Coordination Meeting on the Use
of Isotopes in Studies of Pesticide Residues in
Rice-Fish Ecosystems, the Meeting of the Technical
Committee on Electron Cyclotron Emissions, the Regional
Training Course on Radiation Sterilization of Tissue
Crafts for Sate Clinical Use in Health Care, the FAO/IAEA
Research Coordination Meeting on Radiation-induced F1
Sterility in Lepidoptera for Area-wide Control, and the
Third Regional Workshop on Energy, Electricity and
Nuclear Power Planning. Within the framework of the
Asian and Pacific regional cooperative agreement, China
funded the Agency's Regional Training Course on
Formulation Technology for Radiation Crosslinking
Application, and plans to host the Regional Workshop on
Commercialization of Food Irradiation in Shanghai early
next year. Moreover, China has sent experts to Asian and
Pacific developing countries to provide technical
services, and received technicians from developing
countries for professional training. In a nutshell,
china will do all within its capacity to cooperate with
and to make its contribution to the Agency.
Mr. President,
As you know, last year, at the 32nd session of the General Conference of the
Agency, China formally signed with the Agency the Agreement to place some of its
civilian nuclear facilities under the Agency's safeguards. Now I am pleased to
inform the Conference that China has recently completed the domestic legal
procedures related to the Agreement. And the Agreement has now entered into
force. The Chinese government will strictly abide by the obligations set out in
the Agreement. Meanwhile, on 10 January this year, China acceded to the
Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. This shows the great
importance the Chinese government attaches to the physical protection of nuclear
material. We are confident that as more countries become Parties to the
Convention, international cooperation in the field of physical protection of
nuclear material will be further strengthened.
Mr. President,
In order to meet the need for the development of our national economy and
construction, and in pursuance of the policy of actively
and steadily developing nuclear power, our nuclear power
development has registered notable progress over the
past year. The installation of the major equipment of
our self-designed and-constructed 300 MW nuclear power
plant in the first phase of the Qinshan project is
progressing smoothly. The civil construction for the
imported nuclear power plant in Daya Bay, Guangdong
Province has reached a crescendo, its engineering design
and equipment manufacturing and construction on the site
of the plant all going ahead according to plan. The
construction of a 2x600 MW nuclear power plant in the
second phase of the Qinshan project has already been
approved by the State Council as a separate project and
is currently at the stage of technical and commercial
negotiations with foreign firms and completion of
pre-phase work.
In nuclear power development, China has always adhered to the policy of
giving top priority to quality and safety. In April this
year, we invited the IAEA Pre-OSART to inspect the
Qinshan project, while giving full recognition to the
quality of civil construction and equipment
installation, the Pre-OSART suggested some improvements.
This visit was conducive to the construction of the
plant.
In the future, we will mainly develop pressurized water reactors for nuclear
power. Our objective is to standardize and domestically
produce 600 MW pressurized water reactors in series and
to perfect through energetic efforts our self-designed
and-built 300 MW pressurized water reactor, with a view
to their early commercialization.
In nuclear power development, we will follow the principle of mainly relying
on ourselves while maintaining cooperation with other
countries. On the basis of introducing advanced foreign
technology and strengthening independent research and
development, we will accelerate the process of domestic
production of nuclear power equipment and actively
develop international cooperation in the field of
nuclear safety.
Mr. President,
In order to realize the modernization plan of our country, we will steadfastly
implement the policy of opening to the outside world and firmly pursue the
independent foreign policy of peace. In the field of peaceful uses of nuclear
energy, we will, as always, on the basis of the principles of respect for
sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, and equality and mutual
benefit, continue to develop cooperation with other countries, regions and
international organizations and to cooperate more closely and effectively with
the Agency. We are convinced that under the guidance of the policy of reforms
and opening to the outside world, China will achieve greater development in the
field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy and international cooperation.
Thank you, Mr. President.
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin
Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of
International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the
opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or
its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2007 by
MIIS.
