14th INPRO Dialogue Forum on the Potential of Nuclear Energy to Support the Sustainable Development Goals, Including Climate Change Mitigation
International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO)

6–8 June 2017 | IAEA Headquarter, Vienna, Austria

Since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, the international community has pursued achieving the goals of sustainable development. In the process of these efforts, countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition, at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) held in Paris in December 2015, the Paris Climate Change Agreement was adopted. After the adoption of the SDGs and the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the development of sustainable and low carbon energy has become a key issue, and nuclear energy could play a significant role in realizing the objectives of these initiatives.

The IAEA plays an active part in helping the international community achieve the 17 SDGs. It helps countries to use nuclear and isotopic techniques and thereby contribute directly to attaining nine of the 17 Goals. Also in this connection, the IAEA held in 2016 a Scientific Forum with the theme “Nuclear Technology for the Sustainable Development Goals”. During the Scientific Forum, panellists agreed that combatting climate change would be difficult without the expansion of nuclear energy. They also emphasized the large scale demand for low carbon electricity, and that nuclear power capacity had to be increased to meet this demand.

The objectives of the 14th INPRO Dialogue Forum are:

To familiarize Member States with the role of nuclear energy systems in achieving the United Nations SDGs, including support for actions to mitigate climate change;
To emphasize the importance of the existing nuclear power fleet as the second largest source of low carbon electricity (with the second lowest life cycle carbon emissions per kilowatthour), and to examine the issues involved in the proper, safe and secure life cycle management of these critical energy assets;
To consider the possibility of an increased role of evolutionary nuclear power systems (advanced water cooled reactors), small modular reactors, nuclear cogeneration, and next generation nuclear power systems, as well as associated advanced fuel cycles;
To review approaches for enhancing public acceptance of nuclear power as a significant contributor to sustainable development and climate change mitigation;
To familiarize Member States with the IAEA’s present activities and services directly related to these objectives, such as plant life management models and services, the Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review service, construction review service, Nuclear Energy System Assessments using the INPRO methodology, energy planning tools, technology support tools, etc.;
To identify the Member States’ interests in potential IAEA actions to support them in developing their national programmes to achieve the SDGs and address the challenges of mitigating climate change; and
To enable technology holders and countries to exchange information on national and international nuclear energy system related programmes relevant to the SDGs and climate change mitigation.