Ceremony Marks Safeguards Lab´s Extension
– By David Cardenas-Mazurkiewicz,IAEA Division of Public Information –
The IAEA broke new ground in Seibersdorf, Austria on 31 March 2010. Braving spring showers, representatives from IAEA Member States, the Agency´s host country, Austria, and IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano marked the start of construction of the IAEA´s Clean Laboratory extension.
The Environmental Sample Lab plays a key role in the IAEA´s verification work, testing environmental samples to detect undeclared nuclear activity.
The extension is funded by several IAEA Member States: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Spain and the United States.
In his address to the participants in the ground-breaking ceremony, Director General Amano emphasized that "the effectiveness of the Agency´s work depends on maintaining a credible analytical capability. Therefore, from the very beginning of my work as Director General, the enhancement of the Agency´s analytical capabilities has been one of my top priorities."
The ceremony coincides with the administrative reorganisation of the IAEA´s laboratories in Seibersdorf and Monaco, including nuclear safeguards and sciences and applications. Referring to the reorganisation, the Director General explained that the laboratories´ new arrangement will "help make them more effective and efficient in serving the needs of Member States."
During a programme to highlight the Agency´s activities in the area of nuclear sciences and applications (NA), Werner Burkart, Deputy Director General in charge of NA said, "the Agency´s laboratories in Seibersdorf and Monaco enable us as credible interlocutors in the scientific world."
The NA Labs specialize in radiometrics, radioecology and marine environmental studies; developing and adapting agricultural technologies using radioisotopes and nuclear techniques; and ensuring that places like cancer treatment centres consistently provide the right radiation dose to patients.
"By providing state-of-the-art adaptive and applied research to our Member States, we are simultaneously responding directly to their needs in areas such as food and agriculture and standards setting, and able to provide teaching that is first class because it is first hand," says Burkart.
The work of the FAO/IAEA Agriculture and Biotechnology Laboratory, the Instrumentation Laboratory, the Environment Laboratories, and the Isotope Hydrology Laboratory; together with their subsidiary units, covers a wide range of issues like plant breeding – developing drought and salt resistant crops with better yield – climate change, food safety, ocean acidification, natural resource management, environmental pollution, animal production and health, and insect pest control.
The Safeguards Laboratories in Seibersdorf consist of the Environmental Sample Laboratory (ESL) which analyzes environmental swipe samples to detect undeclared activities, and the Nuclear Material Laboratory (NML) that analyzes nuclear material samples from safeguarded fuel cycle facilities to verify the declared quantities of fissile elements at those installations.
The Mass Spectrometry and Radiometry Teams are part of the ESL, and support both environmental and nuclear material sample analysis and the NML includes an IAEA On-Site Laboratory at the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Japan which provides rapid analysis of spent nuclear fuel and plutonium samples from that facility.