Speaker
Klaas Van der Meer
(Belgium)
Description
Distinguished participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear safeguards friends,
I would like to thank the IAEA for giving ESARDA as co-organiser of this symposium the opportunity to address you, the participants of this symposium.
In my opening address of last year’s ESARDA symposium in Bruges, I referred to the European Union as the fundament of a European peace process, set up by forward-thinking European politicians after a devastating second World War.
ESARDA, on the one hand being part of that European family and on the other hand working in practice to support peace by the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, can be considered as a perfect representative of that European peace process.
I am not talking here only to a public of European safeguards researchers, but to the international safeguards community.
Going now from the European to the global perspective, peace should be our motivating force and this is also expressed in the basis of safeguards: the non-proliferation Treaty. Several articles of the Treaty deal with not developing nuclear weapons and not supporting the development of nuclear weapons by other countries, and one article (Article VI) deals with the general and complete nuclear disarmament.
What is ESARDA doing in practice?
First we provide a forum to exchange scientific information for the benefit of all safeguards stakeholders. The most important forum is the biannual open ESARDA safeguards symposium that will be held next year from 19-21 May in Manchester. Given the low attendance of certain important safeguards stakeholders in the past symposia, I would like to urge you all to attend the Manchester symposium. It promises to be very interesting. I would like to announce that the UK National Nuclear Laboratories offer a free subscription to the best poster of the poster sessions of this symposium on behalf of ESARDA.
Next to the ESARDA symposia, we coordinate European safeguards research via our ESARDA Working Groups. Also non-members are welcome in these WG as observers. JRC Ispra maintains the ESARDA website that also supports exchange of safeguards information. I invite everybody to take a look at it.
Another means of exchange is the publication of the ESARDA Bulletin. I am happy to announce that ESARDA offers free subscriptions of the ESARDA Bulletins to the best posters of each poster session.
For the best student poster JRC Ispra offers on behalf of ESARDA a free subscription to the ESARDA Safeguards Course, which is held each year at the JRC Ispra.
Last but not least ESARDA supports scientific exchange by the organisation of Workshops dedicated to one or various subjects. In 2012 ESARDA organised a workshop dedicated to discuss the State Level Concept, while in 2015 ESARDA will organise together with the INMM the 8th INMM-ESARDA workshop in Jackson Hole.
CONCLUSION
Distinguished participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
To conclude I would like to ask you to keep in mind the ultimate goal of the Non-Proliferation Treaty as expressed in Article VI while doing your daily job as safeguards inspector, safeguards analyst, safeguards R&D specialist or diplomat.
With this I would like to express the hope that you will have a fruitful symposium and I would like to thank you very much for your attention!
