The USA has pledged €1m ($1.09m) to support modernisation of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA’s) Nuclear Applications Laboratories in Seibersdorf, outside Vienna. The pledge was announced during the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria, are intended to help countries which want to use nuclear technology for protecting the environment, human and animal health, as well as improving food security, a statement said. The funds will go towards the construction of a new animal production and health laboratory, one of eight laboratories which are to be upgraded under a renovation initiative. The US pledge brings the IAEA half way towards its funding target of €2m needed by June 2017 to begin building the new laboratory on schedule, IAEA deputy director-general Aldo Malavasi said.
