Seibersdorf laboratory

·         On August 3, 2008 UN nuclear monitors revealed that there has been a plutonium leak at a site run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the Seibersdorf laboratory, south of Vienna (Austria).

·         UN nuclear monitors said pressure had built up and plutonium had contaminated a storage-room at the Seibersdorf laboratory, south of Vienna.

·         Last year the head of the IAEA warned the facility was outdated and did not meet UN safety standards.

·         The lab is used to carry out tests on samples taken during IAEA inspection missions.

·         The leak, which occurred, automatically set off an alarm via an air-monitoring system

·         Last November, IAEA director general Mohammed ElBaradei said the site, constructed in 1970, did not meet UN safety standards. 

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, internally often referred to as "The Agency") was established as an autonomous organization on July 29, 1957.
• It seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for military purposes. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower envisioned, in his "Atoms for Peace" speech before the UN General Assembly in 1953, the creation of this international body to control and develop the use of atomic energy.
• The organization and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize announced on 7 October 2005.
• The IAEA has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Additional facilities are located in Seibersdorf near Vienna; Monaco; Toronto; and Tokyo.
• The IAEA serves as an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
• The IAEA's programmes encourage the development of the peaceful application of nuclear technology, provide international safeguards against its misuse, and facilitate the application of safety measures in its use.
• IAEA expanded its nuclear safety efforts in response to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
• The IAEA was headed by Hans Blix from 1981 to 1997, who became unusually well-known because of the 2002-2003 search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The current head of the organization is the Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei.
• At the 49th General Conference, ElBaradei was confirmed as Director General until 2009.