Category: News Story

The IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre plays a vital role in preparing and responding to potential nuclear or radiological emergencies worldwide. (Photo: D. Calma/IAEA)

Ahead of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on 13 October, we look at the role played by the IAEA’s unique Incident and Emergency Centre in preparing and responding to potential nuclear or radiological emergencies.

The NUclear TEChnology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) initiative uses nuclear-derived tools and technology to fight global plastic pollution on two fronts: at point of source, by introducing new technologies to improve plastic upcycling; and to monitor plastic pollution in the ocean, where the bulk of plastic waste ends up. IAEA NUTEC experts work for and with countries to address this growing threat and ensure that they have the knowledge and capacity they need to assess, monitor and mitigate plastic pollution.

Sharing preliminary findings at a side event of the 68th IAEA General Conference last week, NUTEC Plastics experts informed the delegates about the process of developing protocols and analysing these microplastic particles.

“While microplastics have been studied for a few years now, we are now addressing the presence of microplastics even smaller than what previous research has been able to analyse. As the techniques and protocols have never been harmonized for microplastics of this size, it can take significant time to test or develop these methods and ultimately apply them”, said IAEA Research Scientist Marc Metian. “Preparation and analysis can take up to twenty days for just one sample.”

(Photo: F. Llukmani/IAEA)

To mark World Cotton Day, the IAEA Director General has highlighted how nuclear science helps optimize the growth of the world’s most important natural fibre, at celebrations in Benin this morning. 

In his recorded message to over 400 attendees at the World Cotton Day celebration, Rafael Mariano Grossi spoke of the Agency’s role in the international ‘Partnership for Cotton’ and the importance of the crop.  

“Cotton really is a crop worth celebrating: It produces useful natural fibres. It alleviates poverty in some of the world’s least developed countries. It supports the income of women. And it removes harmful carbon from the atmosphere,” the Director General said. 

The IAEA has over six decades of experience developing and sharing nuclear techniques that help get the best out of soil, water and crops like cotton, as part of the work carried out by the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre for Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. 

The centre’s laboratories in Seibersdorf conduct applied research and through the Agency’s Technical Cooperation Programme, the developed technology is then transferred to countries and eventually to farmers to employ these techniques in the field.  

For example, IAEA/FAO scientists use irradiation to speed up the evolution of cotton seeds and develop varieties that are more resilient to drought, heat or disease.  

And in Pakistan, for example, this technique, known as mutation breeding (see Plant mutation breeding), has helped develop 32 new cotton varieties since 1970. Now, more than 40 per cent of the cotton-producing areas in Pakistan are benefiting from the use these new varieties with improved traits adapted to climate change. 

THE SCIENCE Plant mutation breeding

Burundi is using artificial insemination to produce calves that will have greater capacity for milk production. (Photo: C. Nkundwanayo/National Veterinary Laboratory)

Burundi is preventing disease outbreaks in livestock and breeding hardier cattle capable of greater milk production with the support of the IAEA. Staff trained by the IAEA at fully equipped national laboratories in Burundi are now using nuclear and related techniques to process significantly more artificial insemination and diagnostic samples, helping to ensure healthy and high-producing livestock. 

Burundi’s livestock population is at risk from animal and zoonotic diseases, such as foot and mouth disease, East Coast fever and bovine tuberculosis. The IAEA through its joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture has upgraded equipment at the National Veterinary Laboratory and the National Center for Artificial Insemination (NCAIGI) in Burundi and trained the national staff at NCAIGI to diagnose animal diseases using PCR tests. The National Veterinary Laboratory is now able to process 10 000 pathogen samples each year – more than a threefold increase from its previous capacity.  

This autumn, five IAEA fellows from Burundi are learning techniques related to transboundary animal diseases at institutions in Kenya, Malawi and Tunisia. By detecting contagious animal diseases early on, scientists can help to prevent the spread of outbreaks that affect large numbers of cattle. With IAEA support, trained laboratory staff detected a Rift Valley fever outbreak in Burundi in December 2021. More than 900 clinical cases were identified, with 560 cattle reported dead. Laboratory technicians were able to diagnose the disease accurately, which enabled decision makers to limit the spread of Rift Valley fever through monitoring and the vaccination of more than 700 000 cattle. 

“Before I was trained, I could not provide reliable results. With the new knowledge, I feel empowered, and it is much easier for me to perform advanced testing. Farmers are now bringing their samples to check for various diseases, such as brucellosis, when they are planning to sell animals, and it adds value to the price when it turns out to be a negative result. For animal movement purposes, we are getting more than 500 samples per month from various development partners, and we conduct analyses for priority diseases,” explained Mbazumutima Magnifique, a laboratory technician at the National Veterinary Laboratory. 

A recovered Cs-137 radioactive source was safely transferred to this ISO container during an IAEA Fact Finding Mission to Monrovia, Liberia in May 2024. (Photo: F.Baciu/IAEA)

Liberia has moved to fast track its accession to nuclear safety treaties, after IAEA experts helped prevent a radiological incident from shutting down the country’s main hospital. 

In May 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia reached out to the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) for assistance after staff detected an unidentified radioactive source in a maintenance room at the John F. Kennedy Medical Centre in Monrovia. 

If the source had not been managed swiftly, it could have led to significant disruptions, adversely impacting thousands of patients. 

The IAEA developed a plan and deployed a fact-finding mission team comprising the IEC response system coordinator and a disused sealed sources specialist, who arrived in Monrovia on 21 May. By the following day, the source was secured and the hospital could continue its work uninterrupted.   

Liberia’s request for assistance was made pursuant to the operational arrangements under the framework of the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, which sets out an international framework for co-operation between State Parties  and the IAEA to facilitate prompt support. Liberia was not a party to this convention at the time but joined it and five other IAEA legal instruments at the IAEA 68th General Conference.

“The Assistance Convention does not mandate that only parties may receive international assistance. Emergencies are events which overwhelm available resources for response. Even a relatively minor event can become an emergency in the absence of the appropriate resources and training,” explained Florian Baciu, IAEA Response System Coordinator in the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security. “International assistance is therefore available to any State which requires it, to mitigate the impact of a nuclear or radiological emergency on their territory.”  

In Monrovia, the IAEA mission’s objective was to prevent the temporary closure of the JFK Medical Centre, an essential facility for the country’s healthcare. The radioactive source, identified as Caesium-137, is an artificially produced radionuclide widely used in medical and other fields. The team surmised that the source belonged to a disused brachytherapy machine. Brachytherapy is a type of internal radiation therapy that uses radiation sources to treat tumours. The machine had likely been placed in the hospital’s scrap metal facility after it was decommissioned. This incident highlighted the need for proper handling and disposal of radioactive sources in the country, especially for disused medicine equipment. 

During the mission, the IAEA team conducted a detailed radiation survey, confirmed the isotope was Caesium-137, and safely removed the source from a stormwater drain in the former scrap metal facility – which is now the hospital’s maintenance room. The source was then secured in a shielding container provided by the Liberian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and transported to a secure storage location. The IAEA team also completed a radiological survey of the area and concluded that it was extremely unlikely that anyone had been exposed to levels of radiation high enough to cause health problems. This rapid response helped to alleviate anxiety in members of the public and the hospital staff, and to address misinformation about the potential hazards to health as a result of the incident. 

The Executive Director of the EPA, Emmanuel K. Urey Yarkpawolo said: “The prompt assistance provided by the IAEA demonstrates the Agency’s commitment to building nuclear safety frameworks and supporting Member States in assessing and addressing their unique needs and urgencies. The mission did not only address the immediate concerns of the Liberia Government, but also underscored a proactive approach to preventing small issues from escalating to bigger problems. The quick response by the IAEA during our time of need further highlights the broader scope of the Agency’s work which transcends beyond emergency response to encompass comprehensive assistance.”  

Baciu agreed: “The collaboration with the local authorities was seamless, and their proactive approach facilitated this swift action. Our goal is to provide countries with support to ensure that they are able to respond effectively to any type of emergency, irrespective of scale.  We also encourage more States to join the IAEA’s Assistance Convention, as this allows for quick and formal communication channels to receive assistance and support promptly.” 

Gloria Kwong during a panel at the ATOMEXPO International Forum held from 19-21 June 2017 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo: Rosatom)

The IAEA profiles employees to provide insight into the variety of career paths that support the Agency’s mission of Atoms for Peace and Development and to inspire and encourage readers, particularly women, to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) or STEM-adjacent fields. Read more profiles of women at the IAEA.   

Growing up in a conservative, Chinese household in Canada, Gloria Kwong was raised to avoid taking risks and to prioritize her education to help ensure her success.  

Throughout her professional journey, which has led her from Canada to Austria via France, Kwong has always remained committed to her work in the areas of nuclear waste, decommissioning and environmental remediation. During her career, she has navigated challenges in a male-dominated industry and advises young women to follow their passions and embrace new opportunities, even when they come with challenges or risks. 

As a young girl, Kwong aspired to become a professional chef, but her parents encouraged her and her four siblings to focus on their academic studies. After high school, Kwong earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada, and within a few years, she advanced to a managerial role at a leading telecommunications company. However, she realized that her passion was in more technically demanding work, eventually leading her to her current role as Head of the Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation Section at the IAEA.   

“It may surprise people that my experience working in a managerial position for a telecommunications company impacts my work at the IAEA. Although technical competency is essential, good decision-making, communication, and interpersonal skills are no less important, and this is something that comes in hand every day when I work with my team and colleagues at the Agency. An unconventional professional background does not limit you, but instead provides you with more tools to succeed,” said Kwong. 

Seeking to broaden her horizons, Kwong transitioned to the nuclear field as a design engineer at the Ontario Power Generation Darlington Power Station (OPG) in Toronto. While working as a Senior Engineer at OPG, Kwong pursued her PhD in materials engineering from Imperial College London. It would be years later before Kwong took another career leap – this time across the Atlantic. After over a decade at OPG, which later became the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, she was offered the position of Radioactive Waste Management Specialist at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in Paris, France. 

Kwong’s career at the NEA was marked by her willingness to take on new challenges and leadership roles. For over 11 years, she held various managerial positions, including Acting Head of the Radioactive Waste Management Division and the Nuclear Technology Development & Economics Division. Her leadership skills and technical insight were recognized, leading to other roles as Deputy Head of the Office of Policy and Coordination, Head of the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation, and eventually, Senior Advisor to the Director-General. 

Like other women working in a male-dominated industry, Kwong made a concerted effort to establish her credibility and earn the respect of her peers. Her career has been filled with professional milestones and unique international experiences, but it has not been without challenges. 

“A big hurdle for women has always been work-life balance and prioritizing career development , but I see more employers, like the IAEA, addressing these matters through educational scholarships that relieve financial burdens, flexible professional development programmes and new, accommodating HR policies, thereby attracting more women to the nuclear sector,” said Kwong. 

After over a decade at the NEA, Kwong left Paris and moved to Vienna to join the IAEA as the Head of the Decommissioning and Environmental Remediation Section. She and her colleagues strive to promote nuclear decommissioning and environmental remediation by supporting sustainable nuclear energy development. They encourage countries to integrate circular economy principles into national decommissioning and radioactive waste management policies, and they facilitate knowledge sharing to promote the efficient use of resources and the safe reuse of materials. 

“I want to contribute to narrowing the energy equity gap to ensure more people can access affordable, sustainable and clean energy. I believe that nuclear power can elevate its contribution to complement other clean energy sources, which is why I believe in the mission and work of the IAEA,” Kwong said.  

Her piece of advice to young women considering a career in the nuclear field: 

“Follow your heart in decision making. Explore other opportunities, and don’t be afraid to take some risks.”