VZCZCXRO6413
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHUNV #0496/01 3061531
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021531Z NOV 09
FM USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0248
INFO RUEHII/VIENNA IAEA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ASTANA 0208
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 0122
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
RUEHNT/AMEMBASSY TASHKENT 0118
RHEBAAA/DOE WASHDC
RUEANFA/NRC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 UNVIE VIENNA 000496 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AROC IAEA ENRG TRGY
SUBJECT:  IAEA Uranium Mining and Milling Initiatives 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  (U) With the resurgence of interest in nuclear power there is 
also a resurgence of interest in uranium mining.  The IAEA recently 
launched an initiative on uranium mining and milling called the 
Uranium Production Site Appraisal Team (UPSAT) mission.  UPSAT 
missions allow Member States to request a peer review of uranium 
producing facilities on their territories.  This service will work 
with current IAEA projects, including a TC regional project in 
Central Asia and several training programs, to help reduce the 
environmental and public health impact from uranium mining and 
milling.  End Summary. 
 
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UPSAT Missions 
-------------- 
 
¶2. (U) UPSAT missions allow Member States to request a peer review 
of uranium producing facilities.  These reviews would be conducted 
by an international team of experts with direct experience 
applicable to the technical areas of evaluation.  They would review 
all aspects of uranium mining and milling, including legislation, 
regulations, operations and decommissioning.  The UPSAT missions are 
very similar in structure to the OSART (safety assessements) or IRRS 
(regulatory) reviews currently performed by IAEA.   As with other 
IAEA peer review missions, the UPSAT team is advisory and is not a 
regulatory inspection, nor is its report a decision document; i.e., 
it will not be used by IAEA to indicate whether a Member State is 
allowed to mine uranium or not; the IAEA does not have the authority 
to enforce any such judgment in any case. 
 
¶3. (U) The IAEA is re-launching this program after it tried 
unsuccessfully to launch it in 1996.  At that time, there was a 
decline in the activity of the uranium production industry and, 
consequently, no Member State asked for a review.  However, renewed 
interest in nuclear power has had a positive effect on uranium 
production and the fate of UPSAT was revisited at the 2008 IAEA 
General Conference.  Prior to that General Conference, several 
countries had expressed an interest in having this type of program. 
Ultimately, the UPSAT program is expected to facilitate the exchange 
of knowledge and experience between team members and industry 
personnel.  This exchange of information should serve to enhance 
overall safety and efficiency in uranium production in current and 
planned uranium production endeavors. 
 
¶4. (U) Among the main objectives of these missions are:  to provide 
the requesting Member State or organization an objective assessment 
of the status of operational safety and practices at the site in the 
context of generally accepted international practices related to 
operational safety and performance; and, to provide recommendations 
and suggestions for improvement in areas where performance falls 
short of generally accepted practice. 
 
¶5. (U) A request for an UPSAT mission must come formally from a 
Member State or an organization within the Member State.  After the 
request is made, the IAEA will compose a team of experts from 
countries other than the country in which the review is performed. 
The Member State must furnish the team with data on the facility in 
order to allow the UPSAT team to familiarize itself with relevant 
background investigation.  Once a desk study is complete, the team 
will conduct the review in the Member State.  A mission report will 
be drafted and transmitted to the Member State.  This report will 
become the property of the Member State or the reviewed organization 
and will be kept confidential and therefore not released to the 
public or other Member States by the IAEA or UPSAT team.  The costs 
of the mission will be shared by the IAEA, the reviewed Member 
State, and Member States providing experts.  (This funding structure 
differs from that for OSARTs or IRRSs, which are paid for solely by 
the requesting Member State.)  Moreover, if the mission is requested 
by a developing Member State, the cost may be financed through IAEA 
technical cooperation funds.  The U.S. can expect that the IAEA will 
ask for extra budgetary funds and cost free experts to participate 
in these missions. 
 
--------------------------- 
TC Project for Legacy Sites 
--------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (U) The IAEA is continuing to work through a Technical 
Cooperation regional project that involved all four Central Asian 
Member States in the remediation of uranium mining and milling sites 
in their territories.  The Regional Project is called the Safe 
 
UNVIE VIEN 00000496  002 OF 002 
 
 
Management of Residues from Former Uranium Mining and Milling 
Activities in Central Asia. 
 
¶8.  (U) The focus of this program is remediating the situation in 
some of the Central Asian republics where inappropriate operations 
of uranium mining and processing for more than 50 years created a 
situation that poses public health risks and has significant 
consequences for the environment.  The IAEA has organized two 
international conferences on environmental remediation to discuss 
these issues.  The first was held in 1999 in Arlington, Virginia, 
the second was May 18-22, 2009 in Astana, Kazakhstan. 
 
¶9. (U) The IAEA's remediation project focused on an area that 
includes the Ferghana Valley, which is also a focus of assistance 
activity from other international agencies that are working in the 
region with projects relating to radioactive waste management and 
uranium mill tailings remediation. These include the World Bank, the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), The 
North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO), the United Nations 
Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment 
Program (UNEP). 
 
¶10.  (U) Further, the IAEA hosted a meeting May 8, 2009, in Vienna 
with several of these international organizations, including the 
Eurasian Economic Community, European Bank for Reconstruction and 
Development, European Commission, World Bank, OSCE, and UNDP.  Each 
organization made presentations on its efforts in this region to 
coordinate efforts and ensure that there is a minimum of overlap 
between activities and to optimize the combined efforts. 
 
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Reducing "Exploitation" 
----------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) Another concern the IAEA is trying to address is the 
perception on the part of developing countries with uranium deposits 
that they are being "exploited" by more developed countries that are 
building nuclear power plants.  The IAEA Secretariat notes that many 
"legacy sites" need remediation today because the host country did 
not have or enforce the proper legislation, regulations, or 
contracting knowledge to hold mining companies responsible for the 
environmental cleanup.  Many countries in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, 
Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) have continued problems 
with legacy sites that cost billions to clean up and which, again in 
the view of Secretariat experts, probably will never be fully 
resolved because the scale of the problem is so large.  The IAEA and 
many other organizations are helping states develop draft 
legislation, which if adopted and enacted would help protect each 
Member State from creating new problems of this type.  The IAEA is 
encouraging these countries to set up a regulator and legal system 
including contracts that will protect their people and the 
environment once the companies leave.  Finally, the Agency is also 
developing training programs and informational workshops for Member 
States to be better prepared to handle requests for licensing new 
uranium mines.  The IAEA believes this type of training and 
preparation is important so that the world does not end up with more 
legacy uranium sites to have to remediate in the future.  The 
environmental and financial issues associated with decommissioning 
should be dealt with before a mine is licensed. 
 
--------------------------- 
Nothing to get UPSAT about? 
--------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Mission believes the offer of UPSAT missions and 
commercial incentives concomitant with the upswing in worldwide 
prospects for nuclear power will make advising on uranium 
mining/milling an area of expanding IAEA activities for some time. 
Mission will continue to monitor developments and member state 
requests on this front.  Mission will also continue to sensitize 
IAEA project officials to the fact that Iran suffers from a dearth 
of indigenous uranium resources and could be on the prowl for a 
developing country with reserves Tehran may try to exploit despite 
the current UNSC prohibition against uranium sales to Iran. 
 
DAVIES