Board picks Amano as new IAEA director general

3 July 2009


On 2 July, the 35-member International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors selected Ambassador Yukiya Amano of Japan as IAEA director general.

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

The Board will meet at IAEA headquarters today, 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, 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.

Amano is to become the fifth director general of the IAEA. He will succeed Mohamed ElBaradei, who was first appointed to the office effective December 1997, and reappointed in 2001 and 2005. His present term as director general runs until 30 November 2009.


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