 Good morning and welcome to our social media corner. My name is Diana and I'm the social media manager at IEA. We are live from beautiful Vienna, our headquarters, and there's a lot going on here this week. Our general conference started yesterday and it will go on until the end of the week, and our scientific forum is also happening today and tomorrow. And this year our scientific forum is all about the much needed transition to clean energy. As the world's population and economy keep growing, so does the demand for clean and greener energy. However, climate change has been telling us for many years that we need greener and cleaner solutions. And that without nuclear, that might not be possible. Follow our tag at most for climates to stay on top of the discussions happening here in the next couple of days. And to be part of the conversation. We will be speaking to several guests, but now I'm very pleased to introduce you to our very first guest, our director-general, Rafael Grossi. Welcome, director-general to our social media corner. Hello Diana. Good morning. Good morning. It's nice to have you here. Thank you. So can you tell our followers what we expect from this scientific forum? Well, you know, the scientific forum has traditionally been an important event on the sides of the general conference, where some important topical issue is discussed from a different perspective. And we thought that this year we could use this opportunity to put the emphasis and to focus more on something which is increasingly important as the transition to clean energy. We are in between two important conferences on climate change. Last year we had one in Madrid and next year should have been this year because of the pandemic. It has been postponed. We are going to have a conference in Glasgow next year on climate change. And we will be present. The IAA will be present. More than the IAA, more importantly, nuclear energy, the role of nuclear energy. So I see this opportunity here in Vienna as a good one to have people. We have political representatives here, but at the same time in the very unique way the IAA provides. It's an intersection between political people and technical people and scientists. So we are giving ourselves this opportunity to have this conversation here in Vienna, how we see things now, and hopefully to educate, to provide more information, and also to contribute in a better way to the societal understanding of what's at stake or what nuclear energy can do about the problems we have. Thank you. For the climate goals to be met by 2050, 90% of all the electricity will need to come from local carbon sources. Do you think there's a success formula to achieve this? What is the role played by nuclear? Well, I've been saying something which I will repeat at the scientific forum, and that is very simple. Nuclear has a place at the table. Of course, we live in free economies where there's no magic hand or no central planner indicating what is the exact amount within the recipe of different forms of energy. What we can do is from a scientific, technical, and also empiric perspective indicate what are the advantages, what nuclear energy is doing now, already now. It's not a theory, it's not a model, it's what nuclear energy is doing now. So that when the policy discussions, political discussions take place in different parts of the world, including in centers where financing is discussed, then there is a dispassionate approach to these issues. And nuclear is considered a part with others. Definitely, nuclear has a place at the table. It should have even more. And what do you think are the main, what do you foresee as the main challenges for this transition to clean energy to happen? Well, there are a number of issues. I don't know if I would call them challenges. I think the first thing for nuclear to be considered more by newly exceeding countries is the issue of financing, of course, because nuclear energy, like any other endeavor of big proportion, sometimes requires capital and that requires financing, sorry. And that may require credits and loans and this type of activity. And in some cases, we've seen precisely non-technical, non-economical factors coming at play. So what we want to do is to provide rational arguments that may facilitate this discussion. So when financial conditions are easier, then I believe it will be, again, a more accessible solution for many countries. Then there are scientific, innovative technologies coming at play, making it or providing, I would say, from the menu of technological solutions that come with nuclear energy, providing also easier to access technologies to middle countries or to countries that might not be able to embark in bigger projects. And here I have in mind small and medium-sized reactors, scalable reactors, modular reactors that can provide nuclear energy at, if I may put it so colloquially, an affordable price. And what can the agency do or it's already doing to help countries in this transition to clean energy? Well, first of all, we are providing them with information, with capacity building, with the ability that they may otherwise find a bit difficult to have technical advice. In some cases, countries are approached by vendors, offers can be complex to discern. So what we are in a certain sense is the member state consultant. We don't have a commercial interest. Our interest is everybody's benefit. So we are an increasingly valued interlocutor for our member states who come to us after listening to many people coming to them and offering things. They come to us for a sober, calm analysis on what it's on offer and what may be best for their particularities or the peculiarities or their market. Thank you. And how do you feel about this transition? Are you optimistic? Did you see it happening in many countries? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think what one sees is that more and more countries in Latin America, where we come from, in Asia, in Africa, in the Gulf, this would have been incredible to believe that countries flooded with oil and gas would be looking at nuclear. But this is exactly what they are doing. And this is for a reason. So I believe that what lies ahead is very positive. At the same time, the IAEA sees this as a great responsibility for us because we are the ones, precisely because of what I was saying now, we do not look at this from a commercial perspective. We look at this from a scientific, technical, non-proliferation angle. We want to make sure that all of these projects will only bring benefits. And so we are the global hub for all these things. So I take this with a great sense of responsibility, I would say. DG, I know that you need to go to the opening of the scientific forum. Yes. It is about to start. So thank you so much for joining us for this short, but very insightful conversation. We wish you good luck and very nice discussions during the scientific forum this year. Thank you. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now, as I just say, our scientific forum on nuclear power and the transition to energy is about to start. Follow hashtag Atoms for Climate to stay on top of the discussions and to be part of the conversation. We will come back tomorrow with more interviews. So see you tomorrow and stay on top of the conversation with hashtag Atoms for Climate. See you. Thank you.