Four Candidates Vie to Lead IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced in September that it has received four nominations of candidates to become the agency’s sixth director-general. The four are seeking to succeed Yukiya Amano of Japan, who died in office on July 18, midway through his third term. (See ACT, September 2019.)

The candidates are Cornel Feruta of Romania, Rafael Mariano Grossi of Argentina, Lassina Zerbo of Burkina Faso, and Marta Ziakova of Slovakia. They are scheduled to meet in early October with the agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors, which must approve a candidate by a two-thirds majority. The board’s selection will then be sent to the agency’s entire membership for its approval, with a goal of completing the selection process by the end of the year.

Feruta is the agency’s acting director-general, stepping up to the post after previously serving as Amano’s deputy. Grossi is Argentina’s ambassador to the IAEA and previously served as the agency’s assistant director-general for policy in the agency. Zerbo is executive secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization. Ziakova is chairperson of the Slovak Nuclear Regulatory Authority and has previously chaired the agency’s Board of Governors and General Conference.—GREG WEBB