IAEA CONSULTANCY ON LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES OF

UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000211 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC ENRG TRGY KNNP RU SUBJECT: IAEA CONSULTANCY ON LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES OF NON-STATIONARY NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS STATE FOR ISN/NESS AND IO/T DOE FOR NA-6 WELLING REF: STATE 46557 (notal) ¶1. IAEACouns called on IAEA Deputy Director General (DDG) for Nuclear Energy Yury Sokolov on May 7 to discuss U.S. concerns about the referenced consultancy meeting and to deliver letter per para 3 of reftel. ¶2. Sokolov disputed that the timing of the May 14-15 consultancy was so "short-notice." He asserted that it had been previewed in the February 2009 INPRO Steering Committee meeting, (but with this ignored that U.S. and Canada had expressed reservations at that time). Moreover, he said, the terms of reference for the activity generally had been formulated in December 2008 and circulated. In contrast to the U.S. concern that what is to be discussed in the May meeting represents too much the work of only one Member State, Sokolov said his concern was that the work of the Russian home team, about which the IAEA and other Member States had only the barest outline, would not be elaborated in time to integrate with other international efforts under INPRO task 4. Sokolov recalled that he himself had not been satisfied with the formulation of Russian concepts as first reported by the home team in June 2008. - ¶3. IAEACouns reiterated from ref letter text that the U.S. is strongly interested in discussing non-stationary nuclear power plant concepts, including aspects of liability, nonproliferation, and nuclear safety and security. He registered U.S. concern that we lacked sufficient preparatory time to comment usefully on the Russian home team's work. He added that USG was considering participation May 14-15 and would in its deliberations look at identifying a suitable expert representative. DDG Sokolov urged the U.S. to participate actively. ¶4. UNVIE notes reftel instruction was received also as STATE 46452 and 46305. PYATT