22 Sep (NucNet): International Atomic Energy Agency member states should “contribute generously” to the modernisation of the agency’s nuclear applications laboratories in an effort to ensure that developing countries gain access to nuclear science and technology, the agency’s director-general Yukiya Amano said today.
Mr Amano told the opening session of the IAEA’s general conference in Vienna that the agency’s cluster of nuclear applications laboratories in Seibersdorf, near Vienna, are more than 50 years old and a major overhaul is “long overdue”.
In May 2014, Mr Amano presented a detailed modernisation strategy to the IAEA’s Board with a target budget of 31 million euros (39 million US dollars) to be reached through a mixture of IAEA regular budget and member state extra-budgetary funds.
He said when the project is completed in 2017, the agency will have “fit-for-purpose” laboratories that will meet member state needs for the next 15 to 20 years.
The project plan consists of new building construction, the renovation of existing buildings, the acquisition of new laboratory equipment to replace aging or obsolete instruments, and infrastructure upgrades.
Mr Amano said the laboratories offer training in nuclear applications to scientists in member states, support research in human health, food and other areas, and provide analytical services to national laboratories.
This side of the agency’s work does not get the same attention as its activities in nuclear safeguards, nuclear safety and nuclear security, but it is just as important, Mr Amano said.
According to the IAEA, since their establishment in 1962, the Seibersdorf laboratories have not received any comprehensive renovation or significant upgrading of equipment. The laboratory buildings are generally in “suboptimal condition”, space is critically limited and much of the equipment needs replacing or modernising.
The IAEA laboratories were first established in 1959 in the basement of the agency’s headquarters, then housed at the former Grand Hotel in Vienna. They consisted of a handful of scientists, operating a small physics and chemistry laboratory and a support electronic workshop.
In 1962, they moved into a site built on land next to the Austrian Nuclear Research Centre, near the village of Seibersdorf, about 35 km southeast of Vienna. Today, the Seibersdorf Laboratories encompass an area of some 15,000 square metres and a staff of about 180 people.
Early work focused on the preparation of radioactive sources and determination of radiation doses. Later, activities were extended to the application of radiation and isotopes in health, agriculture, environmental and analytical chemistry, physics and electronics, and safeguards analysis.
