IAEA's liaison officer with ICTP speaks about his department's broad mandate in nuclear science and technology as well as the Agency's close ties with the Centre.

Agency Ties

International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications may not be in the headlines as often as other IAEA departments--for example, those involved in issues related to nuclear energy and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The department, nonetheless, is involved in a vital part of the IAEA's mission to promote peaceful uses of nuclear techniques to meet basic human needs. Our broad-ranging activities include research aimed at the generation of nuclear knowledge and technology and their application to practical problems facing IAEA member states, particularly those in the developing world.
The department, in short, focuses on areas of critical importance to global social and economic well­being, including food and agriculture, human health, water resources and environmental protection.
For example, we work closely with the United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), headquartered in Rome, on research and development initiatives designed, among other things, to produce higher yielding crop varieties, trace the migration of pesticides in soil and water, monitor the spread of such animal diseases as foot and mouth disease and rinderpest, and control insect pests. We also work closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) for introducing and improving diagnostic radiology, enhancing nuclear medicine and radiation therapies, monitoring non-radioactive pollutants and the accidental release of radionuclides into the atmosphere, and studying drug-resistance in malaria. In all our activities, researchers apply such nuclear techniques as isotope tracing, radionuclide imaging and radioimunoassays.
In addition, the department supports laboratories around the world and fosters international cooperation in the application of nuclear technology to everyday scientific, technological and socio-economic problems.
For example, we operate a dosimetry laboratory (in cooperation with WHO); an isotope hydrology laboratory; a physics, chemistry and instrumentation laboratory; an agriculture and biotechnology laboratory (in cooperation with FAO); and a marine environment laboratory (with support from the Principality of Monaco). All these laboratories play key roles not only in advancing research but in training scientists and technicians, especially from developing countries.

Werner Burkart

As head of the department, I also serve as the IAEA's liaison officer with ICTP and on 26-27 April, I visited Trieste to attend the Centre's Scientific Council meeting. I believe that IAEA's relationship with ICTP has grown stronger in recent years as indicated by the variety of joint training and research activities now taking place in Trieste. In 2001, these activities range in subject matter from desalination studies to radioactive-waste management, reactor performance simulation, and earthquake and climate change prediction.
For more than three decades, ICTP has served as a unique intellectual transfer point on subjects related to nuclear science. Moreover, it is an institution that enjoys close ties and enormous credibility in countries throughout the developing world. Given my department's mandate-to promote applications of nuclear science among IAEA's member states, particularly those in the developing world-I am delighted to have the Centre as part of the Agency's family and I look forward to even closer relations in the years ahead.

For more detailed information about the activities of the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, please see its website at www.iaea.org/programmes/ri/.

Werner Burkart
Deputy Director General
Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications
International Atomic Energy Agency
Vienna, Austria

Back to Contents Forward to Features

Home