"The conference will provide a forum for ministers, policymakers, senior officials and experts to engage in high-level dialogue on the role of nuclear energy in the transition to clean energy sources, and its contribution to sustainable development and climate change mitigation," IAEA said in a description on the event website.
Participants will discuss key issues related to the development and deployment of nuclear energy, including the reliability and flexibility of the nuclear industry during the COVID-19 global crisis and its contribution to economic recovery efforts amid the ongoing global pandemic, the description said.
The Russian delegation - comprised of representatives from the state energy corporation Rosatom and the technical watchdog Rostekhnadzor - planned to take part in the ministerial meeting but was not provided the necessary visas by the US government.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow considers it unacceptable that the US government did not issue the requisite visas to the Russian delegation.
The US government’s refusal to provide visas grossly violates the norms in the agreement between the IAEA and the state hosting the event, which gives grounds to rethink whether it is advisable to hold international forums in the United States, Zakharova said.
"This is another reason to think about whether it is worth trusting holding of large international forums in a country that is not able to organize them properly," Zakharova added.
Rosatom said that its Director General Alexei Likhachev would participate in the conference via video link.
The conference will feature numerous speakers, including US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, TerraPower Founder and Chairman Bill Gates, China's Sanmen Nuclear Power Company President Wu Yuanming and Nuclear Power Corporation of India President B. C. Pathak, among others.
The fifth International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century, organized in cooperation with the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the US capital.
The planned topics to be addressed include creating the conditions for wider deployment of nuclear energy, extending and expanding the clean energy contribution of existing nuclear power plants, pursuing early deployment of advanced reactor and waste management technologies as well as effective regulatory oversight for the future of nuclear energy, according to the description.