IAEA Denial of Shipment Working Group Meeting 3

This meeting was attended by 20 designated members of the DoS WG from 10 Member States, 2 international organizations, and 4 non-governmental organizations that included WNTI.

WNTI were represented at the meeting by Simon Chaplin and Emily Midgley. Representing other organizations, or their own Member States, where WNTI members; Kurtis Hinz (WNA), Marc-Andre Charette (Canada), Anne Presta (France), Alastair Brown (UK).

The meeting was convened to discuss the progress of the DoS Working Group and the related Sub-working groups and to prepare outcomes to be presented at the 68th regular session of the IAEA General Conference.

Opening the meeting, Ms Hildegard Vandenhove, Director, Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety (NSRW) underlined that facilitation of safe and secure transport of radioactive material is vital to continue the use of nuclear technology and stressed upon the importance of DoS WG’s task in finding solutions for facilitation and the crucial role played by UN Special Agencies, Member States and industry.

Among other comments, Ms Vandenhove pointed out that the work being done on communications and awareness during the meeting would contribute to the development of a website that would help in facilitating the safe transport of radioactive material.

The DoS WG is supported by 3 Sub-Working Groups,

1. DoS Data Collection, Analysis and Metrics
2. Potential solutions to address the DoS Problem
3. Awareness, Training and Outreach

WNTI are particularly involved in sub working group 3, Awareness, Training and Outreach. This SWG is Chaired by Mr Natanael de Carvalho Bruno (Brazil) and Co-Chaired by Simon Chaplin.

During one of the SWG breakout sessions considerable work was progressed on the proposed website content. Emily Midgley was able to use her knowledge of communication to guide the SWG to some tangible outcomes. It is hoped that the bulk of the content for the website will be completed soon enabling to website to go live.

WNTI Members can download the full draft meeting report below.