WNTI initiative aims to keep essential nuclear materials moving
My first few weeks as CEO at WNTI have been incredibly rewarding. September has been exceptionally busy, giving me the opportunity to meet members, industry leaders, policymakers and advisers from around the world.
What struck me was how consistently the same challenges have been highlighted.
First, we have a historic opportunity to support countries facing rising energy demand while urgently needing to expand reliable, low-carbon generation.
Second, advances in nuclear medicine are increasing demand for radioactive materials used in diagnosis and treatment, behind every one of those shipments is a patient waiting for a scan or a course of potentially lifesaving treatment.
Third, relatively basic (and entirely surmountable) interruptions in the transport system risk holding back both.
These interruptions have real consequences. They increase costs, reduce productivity, and constrain innovation.
And where time-sensitive medical isotopes are involved, a shipment held at a border is not simply a logistics problem: some of these materials lose half their useful activity within days, so a delay of forty-eight hours can mean a scan that does not happen.
That is why WNTI is launching Clear Pathways at our Members’ Conference in Singapore on 28 and 29 October.
Our approach is straightforward: deliver practical member impact that makes it easier for members to do business.
For WNTI, that means helping to remove barriers to the safe, reliable and predictable transport of radioactive materials.
Clear Pathways will turn policy into practice at transnational, national and local levels, through a combination of advocacy, analysis and outreach.
We will educate and train people outside our industry, explaining how these essential materials are transported safely and why they matter.
We will engage directly with governments, regulators, carriers, ports, airports, and the public using evidence, analysis and direct negotiations to work through barriers and open up or reopen pathways.
The programme will also include a live portal where members and partners can report a denial or delay as it happens.
We will do our best to intervene quickly and practically, while also collecting the evidence needed to identify patterns and recommend wider policy and operational changes. Every report makes the case for change stronger.
Keeping these materials moving is not a technical footnote. It is what allows a hospital to diagnose a cancer, a laboratory to sterilise its equipment and a grid to stay supplied. Clear Pathways exists to keep those journeys open.
I look forward to launching Clear Pathways, and meeting many more of our members and industry figures, in Singapore in a few weeks’ time.
