IAEA Forum Crucial for Nuclear Science Application in Global Hunger Fight

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear scientific forum is very important for application of nuclear science for the struggle against hunger in the world, Kostas Stamoulis, Assistant Director General of UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told Sputnik on Wednesday.

VIENNA (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — The IAEA 60th General Conference is taking place in Vienna, Austria on September 26-30. The annual meeting brings together high-ranking officials and representatives from all 168 IAEA member states. The forum is held in conjunction with the General Conference on 28-29 September.

"First of all, these types of events [as the IAEA nuclear scientific forum] are attended by people that have contact with policymakers. The second is the interaction between agencies and scientists, that they transfer knowledge from one place to another. So all these things together give countries the chance to transfer the knowledge to policymakers to take action [on application of nuclear science in fight against global hunger]," Stamoulis said.

Stamoulis added that he considered such transfer of knowledge as the issue of high importance.

The IAEA, the world’s center for cooperation in the nuclear field, was created in 1957 and reports to the UN General Assembly and Security Council. The agency with the headquarters in Vienna seeks the promotion of peaceful use of nuclear energy. The incumbent IAEA Director General is Japan's Yukiya Amano.