Washington, DC - The U.S. Government has contributed $1 million to the International Atomic Energy Agency for a new project that will improve and streamline efforts to diagnose the Ebola virus in Africa. Of the total U.S. contribution, $650,000 is provided through the IAEA’s Peaceful Uses Initiative and $350,000 through other extra-budgetary contributions to the IAEA.

The IAEA’s project will provide high-quality training and cutting-edge equipment based on nuclear science applications to teams of virologists in 11 African countries—Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Uganda—to help them more quickly and safely diagnose emerging diseases, including Ebola.

Since the launch of the IAEA peaceful uses initiative in May 2010, the United States has contributed more than $50 million in the last five years and allocated more than $45 million of this amount to specific projects. This initiative, announced at the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, reinforced the commitment of the United States and other donors to IAEA activities that promote peaceful uses of nuclear technology in areas such as human health, water resource management, food security and agriculture, environmental protection, and nuclear power infrastructure development. To date the United States,17 other donor countries, and the European Union have contributed approximately $77 million to the PUI, which funds IAEA projects that benefit more than 120 countries. This is in addition to annual voluntary contributions from member states, including the United States, averaging more than $85 million to the IAEA’s Technical Cooperation program.