French

WE, the Ministers and representatives of Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, SHARE a common interest in ensuring the security of supply of the most widely used medical radioisotope, molybdenum-99 (⁹⁹Mo) and its decay product, technetium-99m (^99mTc), which is used in approximately 40 million medical diagnostic imaging procedures per year worldwide enabling precise and accurate, early detection and management of diseases such as heart conditions and cancer, in a non-invasive manner.

WE ACKNOWLEDGE, on the one part, that the production of ^99mTc depends largely on a small number of reactors that are ageing and facing unplanned outages, planned refurbishment outages or planned permanent shutdowns, which increases the risk of disruption of the supply chain, unless new infrastructure is developed to replace these facilities before they shut down.

WE RECOGNISE, on the other part, that an unsustainable economic structure is threatening the reliability of the ⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc supply chain, and that global action to move to full-cost recovery is necessary to ensure economic sustainability and long-term secure supply of medical isotopes.

WE AFFIRM that any action to ensure the reliability of supply of ⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc must be consistent with the political commitments to non-proliferation and nuclear security.

WE CONFIRM our acceptance of the principles set forth in the policy approach released in June 2011 by the High-Level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (the HLG-MR principles) to ensure the long-term secure supply of medical radioisotopes, which were formally endorsed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy on 28 April 2011.

WE COMMIT, with the aim of jointly promoting an internationally consistent approach to ensuring the long-term secure supply of medical radioisotopes, to implement the HLG-MR principles in a timely and effective manner, and to:

• Take co-ordinated steps, within our countries' powers, to ensure that ⁹⁹Mo or ^99mTc producers and, where applicable, generator manufacturers in our countries implement a verifiable process for introducing full-cost recovery at all facilities that are part of the global supply chain for ^99mTc;
• Encourage the necessary actions undertaken by ⁹⁹Mo processing facilities or ^99mTc producers in our countries to ensure availability of reserve capacity capable of replacing the largest supplier of irradiated targets in their respective supply chain;
• Take the necessary actions to facilitate the availability of ^99mTc, produced on an economically sustainable basis, as outlined in the HLG-MR principles;
• Encourage all countries involved in any aspect of the ^99mTc supply chain, and that are not party to the present Joint Declaration, to take the same approach in a co-ordinated manner;
• Take the necessary actions described above by the end of December 2014 or as soon as technically and contractually feasible thereafter, aware of the need for early action to avoid potential shortages of medical radioisotopes that could arise from 2016;
• Report on an annual basis to the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) on the progress made at the national level and support an annual review of the progress made at the international level, both in light of this Joint Declaration.

WE INVITE the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) to further the objectives set out in this Joint Declaration by, among other actions, undertaking periodic reviews of the progress of the supply chain with implementing the HLG-MR principles.