Board Selects Japan´s Yukiya Amano as IAEA Director General

Friday, Jul 03, 2009

The 35-member IAEA Board of Governors today selected Ambassador Yukiya Amano of Japan as IAEA Director General. The Board met at IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

The Board today voted on three candidates that had been nominated to head the IAEA: Mr. Amano, Mr. Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa, and Mr. Luis Echávarri of Spain. Mr. Amano and Mr. Minty were the candidates in the final round of balloting, with Mr. Amano receiving the required two-thirds majority of votes cast.

The Board will meet at IAEA headquarters tomorrow, 3 July, for the formal appointment of Ambassador Amano. His term as Director General would begin 1 December 2009.

The IAEA Director General is appointed by the Board of Governors with the approval of the General Conference for a term of four years. The General Conference meets in Vienna starting 14 September 2009.

Ambassador Amano, 62, is the Permanent Representative and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to International Organizations in Vienna, and Governor on the IAEA Board of Governors. He has extensive experience in disarmament, non-proliferation and nuclear energy policy and has been involved in the negotiation of major international instruments. He has held increasingly senior positions in the Japanese Foreign Ministry, notably as Director of the Science Division, Director of the Nuclear Energy Division and Deputy Director General for Arms Control and Scientific Affairs.

Background:

Ambassador Amano is to become the fifth Director General of the IAEA in its 52-year history.

He will succeed Mohamed ElBaradei, who was first appointed to the office effective December 1997, and reappointed in 2001 and 2005. Dr. ElBaradei´s present term as Director General runs until 30 November 2009. Other former IAEA Director Generals were Hans Blix, from 1981 to 1997; Sigvard Eklund, from 1961 to 1981; and Sterling Cole, IAEA Director General from 1957 to 1961.

Source: IAEA