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Rabat – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has selected Morocco alongside Ethiopia, Kenya, and Senegal to contribute to implementing the second phase of the IAEA’s Regulatory Infrastructure Development project (RIDP) in Africa.
The three-year project aims to support 37 African countries in establishing regulatory bodies to control radioactive sources and ensure respect for international radiation regulations and laws.
“The project leaders have identified four so-called facilitating countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, and Senegal,” IAEA said in a statement. “The countries will play a key role in the next phase of the project by facilitating the knowledge exchange and providing best practice from the region.”
The selected countries are set to provide a project action plan that includes workshops, advisory missions, and expert meetings. The project activities will help the participating countries to address shortcomings in their legal and regulatory infrastructure for the safe use of radioactive sources.
The agency pointed out that radiation sources are critical in medicine, industry, research, and education, and their emissions need to be carefully handled to protect people and the environment from the potentially harmful effects.
Supported by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the second phase of the RIDP will see the participation of 37 countries, compared to 13 countries that participated in the first phase in 2017.
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The countries include 28 IAEA Member States and nine non-IAEA Member States, namely Cape Verde, Comoros, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Equatorial, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, the Federal Republic of Somalia, and the Republic of South Sudan.
The IAEA Deputy Director-General Juan Carlos Lentijo said that the project seeks to assist participating countries in the efficient and safe use of radiation sources.
“A strong and solid regulatory body, effectively independent, with appropriate legal authority, resources and technical competence is the first ally to ensure safe and secure use of radiation sources,” said Lentijo at the launch of the second phase of the IAEA’s RIDP in Vienna on January 20.
The first phase of the RIDP project in Africa benefited a number of countries including Benin, Malawi, Rwanda, and Seychelles, among others. The beneficiaries profited from the IAEA’s assistance in establishing a fully operational inspection system to control radiation sources.
Similar projects took place in 2013 in Afghanistan and from 2014 to 2016 in North Africa and the Middle East.
