Last week as well as last year I joined technical cooperation missions to the Middle East. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sponsored the trips at the request of national governments. Currently, 171 countries participate in the United Nations agency as member states. They pay dues and in return can obtain training and technical assistance from experts worldwide. Both trips I took relate to similar issues of naturally-occurring radioactivity found in groundwater that is used for drinking water and agriculture. Here is a blog from the trip I took last year. We are examining the sources of radium that are present from uranium and thorium, looking at treatment technologies, potential health effects from consuming low levels of radioactive water or for workers at water treatment plants, as well as potential options for what to do with radioactive waste generated by treatment. Therefore, even if a country does have nuclear facilities for producing energy or weapons, the IAEA can still provide assistance for places were radioactive minerals are found naturally and can contaminate water supplies or in buildings from radon found in air indoors. Naturally occurring radioactivity can be found in many places around the world and if unchecked can potentially cause illnesses including cancer.
Other programs involve nuclear medicine and eradication of diseases such as by suppressing mosquitoes through sterilization. Here’s a excerpt:
“Experts in China plan to test the technology in larger urban areas in the near future using sterile male mosquitoes from a mass-rearing facility in Guangzhou, said Zhiyong Xi, Director of Sun Yat-sen University-Michigan State University’s Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases and Professor at Michigan State University in the United States.”
I look forward to participating in future IAEA technical cooperation missions on water resources issues as well as learning and sharing positive advances being made.