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STATEMENT BY MR. JIANG XINXIONG HEAD OF THE CHINESE DELEGATION AT THE 37TH
SESSION OF THE IAEA GENERAL CONFERENCE
27 SEPTEMBER I993
Mr. President:
First of all, please allow me to express my warm congratulations on your election to the presidency of the 37th session of the IAEA General Conference. 1 am confident that, under your experienced and capable guidance, this conference will be crowned with success. At the same lime, I would like to congratulate and pay tribute to Dr. Hans Blix especially on his re-election as Director General of IAEA.
I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to warmly welcome the six new member states to IAEA, namely Slovak, Czeck, the Marshall Islands, Armenia, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Macedonia.
In recent years, along with the changing world situation, international cooperations on peaceful uses of nuclear energy and efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons have witnessed some positive progress.
Under the auspices and promotion of IAEA, many member states have widely and extensively participated in discussions on solving problems in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and joined in a common effort to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The broad developing member states are longing for the realization of more effective international exchanges and cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. They have strongly demanded a balanced and healthy development of the Agency, put forward many reasonable proposals concerning the development of nuclear technology and utilization of nuclear energy and made important and actual contributions to the prevention of nuclear proliferation.
It should be recognized that the IAEA has done much in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. At the 36th session of he IAEA General Conference, a number of resolutions were adopted hat were of positive significance to the social and economic development of member states, particularly the developing countries. The international nuclear safety convention drafted by the Agency, the follow-up activities to the seminars on liability for nuclear damage and international aspects of the plutonium cycle, and the Helsinki Symposium on "Electricity and the Environment", as well as the special studies sponsored by the Agency on environmental protection in nuclear utilization and on the practical use of food irradiation, are helpful to the development of nuclear science and technology on nuclear energy and its related aspects. Particularly in the field of technical assistance and cooperation, the passed year has witnessed some commendable and pioneering approaches of the Agency. As an inter-governmental organization, the IAEA has been playing a unique role in prolonging the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
It should also be noted that the above mentioned progress is limited and much remains to be covered along the road of development of the international cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy, as numerous difficulties and problems still lying ahead. The current situation of international cooperation for peaceful uses of nuclear energy is less than satisfactory. The industrialized countries' monopoly on nuclear science and technology has remained basically intact and some developed countries even restrain and harm the legitimate rights and interests of the developing countries in peaceful uses of nuclear energy in the name of prevention of nuclear proliferation. In recent years, there have even been attempts to exert pressure on the developing countries under the pretext of prevention of nuclear proliferation. All these are detrimental to the development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The prevention of nuclear proliferation is undoubtedly an important issue to the international community at present and in future. China has always stood for the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons. China does not advocate, nor encourage or engage in the proliferation of nuclear weapons. While opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, China never assists other states develop nuclear weapons. For the purpose of preventing nuclear proliferation, we agree in principle to strengthen safeguards system of the IAEA. In March 1992, China joined the NPT, and in February this year, China agreed to notify to IAEA of its imports and exports of nuclear material, which shows China's support to the efforts on the prevention of proliferation of nuclear weapons.
However, it should be pointed out that, the effectiveness of the efforts in preventing nuclear proliferation depends on a host of interrelated factors. When preventing nuclear proliferation, the rightful requests for peaceful uses of nuclear energy by the member states, the developing countries in particular, should not be ignored, and the development of nuclear science and technology and nuclear industry of the developing countries should not be restrained or hampered under the pretext of prevention of nuclear proliferation. We believe, in short, that any isolated or lopsided approach to nuclear non-proliferation is not in conformity with the purposes and principles set forth in the Statute of the Agency, and is contrary to the basic objectives of the NPT. Such activities may ultimately affect the future development of the IAEA and the fundamental interests of the majority of the member states.
Mr. President:
It has become an important issue of common concern among the member states to adapt the Agency to the new international situation on the prevention of nuclear proliferation, to ensure a more fair and reasonable management of the safeguards matters, and to help the Agency play its expected due role in the comprehensive fulfillment of the purposes and principles of the Statute.
The Standing Advisory Group for Safeguards Implementation and the Secretariat put forward a wide-ranging report in April and May this year 011 strengthening and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the safeguards system, which calls for our careful and in-depth study. Proceeding from the purposes and principles of the Statute, we believe in the following:
? Strengthening and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the safeguards system should not affect the sustained development of the promotional activities. The enhancement of safeguards system and the promotion of peaceful uses of nuclear energy should be mutually replaceable and not independent of one another nor mutually replaceable by one another.
? Strengthening and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the
safeguards system should adhere to the basic principles of being just,
objective, reasonable and transparent. The monopoly or manipulation
by a few countries of the safeguards affairs should not be allowed.
Any biased use of his safeguards system to exert pressure on the member slates
is inappropriate and detrimental to the reputation and role of the Agency.
In strengthening the safeguards system, only when the views of majority of the
member states are taken into careful consideration and discussed and studied
comprehensively, can there be wide appreciation and supported.
? Strengthening and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the safeguards system should ensure that the saving of expenditure and improvement of efficiency be based on the full realization of the inspection goals in the important and key stages of nuclear fuel cycle. Any willfully intensified supervision to some countries or deliberately simplified monitoring on others is detrimental to the development of the safeguards system of the Agency.
Mr. President:
Technical assistance and cooperation activities are important components of the work of IAEA, as they have an important bearing on the promotion of economic and social development of he developing member states. We have noted with pleasure that, in recent years, IAEA has made great efforts and remarkable achievements in this field, particularly in improving the scientific infrastructure and personnel training in various countries, another commendable role of IAEA. Nevertheless, for the differences of developing countries in heir respective nuclear science and technology and management level, the actual result benefitted from the IAEA assistance varies among countries. In order to ensure the technology transfer resulting from the technical assistance of IAEA be turned into productivity more efficiently and faster, we believe hat IAEA should further strengthen its research and investigation on the development strategies of the developing countries, and provide technical assistance projects suited to the key development projects of each country, and enhance the guidance to the planning and implementation of the nuclear energy programs of these countries.
The cooperation among the developing countries in the field of economic and technology has become an important tendency in international cooperations, which is helpful to the economic development and social progress of the developing countries and profoundly significant for the maintenance of world peace and development. We have also noted that, the Agency has done a lot of work and achieved considerable progress in promoting the cooperation among developing countries. We hope that IAEA will make further efforts for in-depth cooperation of various forms. China is willing to play a more active role for the establishment and promotion of the cooperation among the developing countries.
It is widely requested by member states and the international community to conclude an international nuclear safety convention and strengthen international cooperation on nuclear safety and radiation protection. Since 1991, various resolutions and documents have been passed by the General Conference and its Board of Governors meetings, confirming the necessity and urgency of the convention and appealing for the completion of drafting as soon as possible. Thanks to the joint efforts of member states and IAEA Secretariat, general consensus has been achieved on the application scope, structure and organizational arrangements of the convention. During the process of drafting, many countries put forward reasonable proposals and views which laid down a sound bases for further work. We should make continuous efforts. The Chinese delegation believes that the present situation has created good conditions for negotiations on the convention, and we should lose no time to implement the relevant resolutions of the IAEA General Conference.
China has always been positive toward concluding the international nuclear safety convention, and put forward many constructive proposals on important issues relating to the convention. These proposals have received wide support from representatives of many countries, and been reflected in the chairman's summary of the Forth Expert Group Meeting on the convention. We hope to cooperate with all countries further to have the convention finally completed smoothly.
Mr. President:
With the fast advancement of China's socialist modernization and the acceleration of the pace of reform and opening up, the Chinese nuclear energy industry has entered a new development period. The phase 1 of China's self-designed and -built 300MWe pressurized water reactor in Qin Shan, which was successfully commissioned and connected to the power grid in December 1991, is now operating at high output- Unit 1 of Daya Bay nuclear power plant in Guangdong reached its critical stage in July and connected to the power grid on 31 August, which is expected to provide commercial service by the end of this year. Unit 2 of the power plant will be commissioned in the first half of next year. The basic design of 2x600 MWe nuclear power plant, the second phase expansion of the Qin Shan station, has been completed and the engineering design and site preparations are now under way.
The civil nuclear fuel industry for matching the growth of nuclear power stations is under intensive development. After the Chinese Yi Bin nuclear fuel fabrication plant successfully provided fuel assemblies for the Qin Shan nuclear power station, the plant is preparing for the production of fuel assemblies for large nuclear power stations. The plant is to provide fuel assemblies for the Guang Dong Daya Bay nuclear power station by the end of 1994. The Chinese government has approved the construction of a pilot reprocessing plant for the spent fuel from power reactors, the phased design and construction of which is now underway, and the plant is expected to be fully commissioned by the end of the century.
China is a peace loving country, pursuing an independent foreign policy for peace. China's modernization construction requires a peaceful international environment. For this purpose, China is making every endeavor to create and maintain such a peaceful environment. In the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, China will as always maintain and develop friendly relations and cooperation with all countries on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and will contribute to the establishment of international cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy for the benefit of world peace and common development.
Thank yon, 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
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