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Underfunding puts IAEA efficiency at risk, says ElBaradei

The head of the world's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has warned that the organization is so underfunded it would have difficulty responding to a nuclear accident.

In an unusual and angry appeal, Mohamed ElBaradei also said that the IAEA no longer had reliable equipment to detect covert nuclear activity, nor did it have consistent funding for its efforts to combat nuclear smuggling.

ElBaradei made his remarks to the IAEA's board of governors and delegates from national governments on June 15, but the comments were only made public on Thursday.

"If an accident were to happen tomorrow, we would be hard pressed to carry out core functions. This is a reality," he said.

In the event of an accident like the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, the IAEA's incident and emergency center is supposed to step in immediately, sending technicians to help to limit the spread of radiation, advise on the treatment of casualties and coordinate the international response.

ElBaradei said that the IAEA's "safeguards function is being eroded over time," noting that the organization was using an unreliable 28-year-old instrument to carry out environmental sampling. That sampling is carried out in and around countries such as Iran and North Korea, where covert nuclear programs are suspected. The results often have a decisive influence on UN decisions to impose sanctions or other measures.

Because the agency did not have proper equipment of its own, ElBaradei said, it would have to rely on external laboratories in other countries, which "puts into question the whole independence of the agency's verification system."

"In the nuclear security area, which every world leader is saying is a No. 1 priority, we continue to rely for 90 percent of our security funding on extra budgetary contributions that are heavily conditioned and highly unpredictable," he said.

IAEA officials say the organization has more and more work to do trying to keep up with international demands to monitor nuclear proliferation, while its budget has been frozen on the insistence of rich states such as the US, Japan and Germany.

"The budget is essentially a political statement," ElBaradei said. "What kind of agency do you want to have? You can have a mediocre agency, or you can have an effective and efficient agency."

His comments come at a time when the world is struggling to handle twin proliferation crises over North Korea and Iran, which are defying pressure to halt nuclear programs.

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