General Assembly GA/SPD/523

FOURTH COMMITTEE APPROVES RESOLUTION ENDORSING SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE’S INTENTION TO CONCLUDE ASSESSMENT OF RADIATION EXPOSURE FROM FUKUSHIMA ACCIDENT
IHAB HAMED ( Syria) said more effort should be made to raise awareness among the public and the scientific community on the effects of nuclear radiation. Recalling the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents, he called attention to the fact that such events could occur with any reactor in the world. Consequently, he was gravely concerned by the absence of international supervision on some reactors and the lack of implementation of the comprehensive IAEA safety systems. For example, Israel’s nuclear reactor constituted a serious threat to the region and to the world. It was very old, according to international criteria and should have been closed years ago to avoid potentially catastrophic emissions of poisonous gases. Those were not his words, but a warning by an Israeli scientist.Continuing, he said that some observers had emphasized that the Israeli reactor’s cooling towers had not been replaced for 20 years. That was a “time bomb” threatening the entire Middle East, and States should exert all possible pressure on Israel to subject all of its nuclear facilities to IAEA supervision in accordance with Security Council resolution 487 of 1981. The dumping of nuclear waste in the territories of some nations and in the high seas was another very serious issue. Israel had dumped nuclear waste in the occupied Syrian Golan, and he was concerned that the world was silent on that subject. In closing, he drew attention to the importance of international cooperation in order to save humanity from the catastrophic dangers that were threatening it.