IAEA and ElBaradei receive Nobel Peace Prize

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its director general Mohamed ElBaradei on Saturday received the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo for their work to prevent the spread of nuclear arms and promote the safe use of atomic power.

While receiving the award, ElBaradei warned that humanity faces a choice between atomic weapons and survival.

"I have no doubt that if we hope to escape self-destruction, then nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security," the 63-year-old Egyptian said.

ElBaradei and IAEA Board of Governors Chairman Yukiya Amano of Japan received the prestigious prize, consisting of a Nobel diploma, a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (1.3 million US dollars) to be split between them, from chairman of the Nobel Committee Ole Mjoes at a formal ceremony in Oslo's City Hall.

Six decades after the United States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities and 15 years after the Cold War ended, the threat of nuclear nightmare remains strong, ElBaradei said.

"The Nobel Peace Prize is a powerful message," ElBaradei said. "A durable peace is not a single achievement, but an environment, a process and a commitment."

ElBaradei said the world faced "threats without borders" that could not be tackled by building walls, developing bigger weapons or dispatching troops, but only through multilateral cooperation.

He urged three concrete actions: better protection of nuclear material and a strengthened system of verification, control of the nuclear fuel cycle and accelerated disarmament efforts.

The IAEA was founded in 1957 to promote civilian use of nuclear energy and at the same time work to eliminate the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

At a separate ceremony later on Saturday, the winners of this year's Literature, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economics prizes will receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in Stockholm's Concert Hall.

The Nobel Prizes are usually announced in October and are handed out every year on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite.

Source: Xinhua