ISTC participates in a meeting on facilitating adherence of African countries to the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (A/CPPNM)

Tuesday February 21st, 2023

On 16 and 17 February 2023 ISTC attended a hybrid meeting of nuclear experts in Accra, Ghana, convened by the African Center for Science and International Security (AFRICSIS) and funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Main topics on its agenda pertained to the incentives and external assistance to African countries to facilitate their adherence to the convention on physical protection. In fact, CPPNM is the only treaty that obligates countries to implement security measures for civilian nuclear material in international transport, criminalizes offenses associated with nuclear theft and terrorism, and establishes mechanisms for cooperation in securing international transports, responding to incidents, and extraditing suspected criminals. Through its nuclear projects in Africa ISTC promoted – inter alia - the effective implementation of the CPPNM and its Amendment in Africa.  ISTC provided support  with regard to the adherence to the Amendment of the international treaty to some of the countries the Center worked in, which have to yet join the A/CPPNM namely: Burundi, Ethiopia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The latter in fact joint the initial convention during the ISTC-implemented EU-funded project Support to Southern African states in nuclear safety. Ms. Brigitte Okley Ainuson,…
ISTC participates in a webinar on nuclear waste management organized by the University of South Africa

Monday February 6th, 2023

On 2 and 3 February 2023, the Department of Political Sciences of the University of South Africa (UNISA) organized a webinar titled “The Politics of Nuclear Waste ”. ISTC participated in the event that gathered young researchers and experts in the nuclear field. Some of them had previously taken part in ISTC-implemented projects in Africa strengthening nuclear security and safety on the continent. Jo-Ansie van Wyk, Professor of International Politics, UNISA, introduced the theme in her presentation “The necropolitics of nuclear waste”, focusing on the “sacrifice zones”, inhabited by low-income and racialized communities, shouldering more than their fair share of environmental harm related to pollution and contamination. She further referred to the nuclear geography and its constitutive spatial elements – exclusion zones such as uranium mines, nuclear power stations, or waste disposal sites. A former participant in the ISTC Southern Africa project, Isabel Bosman, Researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg titled her contribution “Waste, but not Wasted”. She spoke about the lessons learned from the circulation of radioactive plant and animal products in the wake of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. Ian Fleming Zhou, Chairperson of the Youth Peaceful Uses Working Group, UK, offered…
ISTC participates in a webinar on A/CPPNM for African countries

Thursday January 19th, 2023

On 17 and 18 January 2023, ISTC participated in a webinar organized by the African Center for Science and International Security (AFRICSIS) and sponsored by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), designed as a forum for promoting the universalization and effective implementation of the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and its Amendment (CPPNM/A). More than a hundred participants from 24 African countries took part, comprising senior and mid-level officials from the executive and the legislative branch of government responsible for nuclear security, as well as representatives from regulatory bodies. ISTC was among the six international organizations that attended the webinar. The Center has successfully implemented nuclear security and safety projects in some of the participating states, such as Burundi, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Most of them are parties to either the CPPNM or the A/CPPNM, while some, for example Zimbabwe, adhered to the Convention during the ISTC-implemented project. A welcome development announced at the event was that next March, Harare will host the IAEA regional seminar for Africa on the CPPNM implementation. In March 2022, at the treaty’s first ever review conference, the state parties…
The final meeting of the Steering Committee of the EU Project 60 “Support to the Centre of Excellence of Eastern and Central Africa in Nuclear Security”, implemented by ISTC

Monday December 26th, 2022

On 15 December 2022, the Rwanda capital Kigali hosted the closing session of the Steering Committee (SC) of the EU-funded, ISTC – implemented Project 60 “Support to the Centre of Excellence of Eastern and Central Africa in Nuclear Security”. During the preceding week, the final activity of Project 60 took place in Kigali – training in detection and identification of sources of radiation and retrieval of radioactive material, involving experts from the nuclear regulators in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda. SC members observed the conduct of the closing field exercise, a simulated border crossing checking, organized by the external advisors from ENCO and SCK-CEN, and supported technically by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authorities (RURA). The final session of P-60 Steering Committee was open by Pascal Munyagabe, Director of Foreign Military Relations and Defense Liaison at the Ministry of Defense. It was attended by the national focal points and other experts from Burundi, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Seychelles, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and representatives from the Center of Excellence in East and Central Africa (CoE ECA), including its outgoing Chairman Joseph Maina. In his remarks Ben Nupnau, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation praised the Project as a vehicle for transfer of European…
ISTC participates in the EU Side Event during the IAEA 66th General Conference

Wednesday October 5th, 2022

ISTC participated in the EU Side Event entitled Strengthening Nuclear Security Through Capacity Building and Education, convened on 27 September 2022 during the IAEA GC 66. The objective of this event, organized by the European Union, the IAEA and the Czech Republic, was to present the experience of the EU and the IAEA in supporting capacity building and education in nuclear security, and to showcase the nuclear security achievements of the Centre of Excellence in Eastern and Central Africa. This implied discussing the outcomes of the EU-funded, ISTC-implemented CBRN ECA CoE Project 60, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. At the opening of the event, Ms Marjolijn van Deelen, EU Special Envoy for Disarmament and Non-proliferation, pointed out that the European Union supports systematically the capacity building efforts of the IAEA and in the current financial cycle has attributed EUR 11,6 million for such purposes. Ambassador Ivo Sramek, representing the Czech Presidency of the EU, reminded that IAEA Member States are responsible for the physical protection of nuclear material on their territory and appealed for acceptance of the voluntary Code of Conduct in that respect. Ms Elena Buglova, Director of the IAEA Division of…
ENCO carries out a training course for regulatory body staff of Project-60 participating African countries

Monday April 11th, 2022

In the framework of the EU-funded ISTC – implemented Project Support to the Centre of Excellence of Eastern and Central Africa in Nuclear Security, on 5 and 7 April 2022 ENCO Consultancy conducted a training course for regulatory body staff on nuclear security of radioactive sources.  Leading experts from ENCO - Maja Boskovic, Vladimir Rukhlo, Sorin Repanovici, Oana Velicu and Adriana Baciu – made presentations before the audience of 25 attendants. The topics of the lectures comprised international and national regulatory frameworks for nuclear security; the interface between security, radiation protection and safety; management and accountancy of radioactive sources; threat assessment; design of nuclear security systems; mobile radioactive sources and transport security; preparedness and response to radiological emergencies; etc. The course was in line with the activities designed to upgrade the regulators’ capacity for verification of the nuclear security status of relevant RAM users.
Training course for operators and licensees from the Project – 60 participating countries

Friday March 25th, 2022

On 22 and 23 March 2022, ENCO carried out a remote training course entitled: “Verification of the Nuclear Security Status and Measures”. This activity within the ISTC – led implementation of Project -60 was designed for representatives of organizations involved in the use, storage and transportation of radioactive sources. Twenty-eight participants in the course came from various companies and institutions – operators, authorization holders, licensees for facilities in ionizing radiation. For instance, the biggest group of trainees came from the Ocean Road Cancer Institute, the largest tertiary care medical facility in Tanzania. As the licensees are usually the shareholders that bear direct responsibility for nuclear security measures, the program of the training comprised the international recommendations and national legal and regulatory frameworks that describe and define such obligations. In their presentations leading ENCO experts Maja Boskovic, Oana Velicu, and Vladimir Rukhlo provided also perspectives on the safety and security authorizations, licensee’s records and reports, information protection, control and verification of radioactive source inventory, and other related topics. Sorin Repanovici explained the IAEA requirements for the design and effectiveness of nuclear security system for radioactive sources, while Adriana Baciu spoke about the preparedness for and the response to radiological emergencies at…
ENCO Conducts a Training Course for Customs Officers under the EU Project 60 for East and Central Africa

Friday February 11th, 2022

 On 8 and 9 February, 2022 ENCO carried out a virtual training course entitled “Verification of the Nuclear Security Status and Measures” for customs and border control officers of the countries, participating in the EU-funded ISTC – implemented project “Support to the Centre of Excellence of Eastern and Central Africa in Nuclear Security.  The program of the course included topics like International recommendations and national legal and regulatory framework for import/ export of radioactive sources; Basic concepts in radioactivity; Transport safety and security of radioactive sources; Prevention of illegal shipment of mobile radioactive sources across borders; Response measures in case of a radiological emergency at the border, etc. Senior ENCO experts Maja Boskovic, Vladimir Rukhlo, Adriana Baciu, Oana Velicu, and Sorin Repanovici made presentations to thirty attendees from the participating African states. The discussions following the lectures revealed various important areas from the point of view of the customs. One of them proved to be the fact that the customs officers come into contact with radioactive sources as they form part of shipments of related goods. The identification of such sources implies the use of basic equipment and the ability to perform measurements.  It was also noted that the designation…
Workshop on Control of Cross Border Movement of Mobile Radioactive Sources for Project 60 Participating Countries

Thursday January 27th, 2022

In coordination with ISTC the consultancy ENCO organized on 25 and 26 January 2022 a workshop entitled: Control of Cross Border Movement of Mobile Radioactive Sources in accordance with the implementation program of Project 60 Support to the Centre of Excellence of Eastern and Central Africa in Nuclear Security. ENCO Senior Experts Vladimir Rukhlo, Igor Svyetlov and Ognijen Borovina made presentations before the 26 attending participants from the African partner countries on relevant topics, ranging from the control of the radioactive sources that are crossing national borders and specific challenges with sources out of regulatory control; to obligations stemming from international instruments, such as the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources and supplementary guidance, the IAEA Nuclear Security Recommendations on Radioactive Material and Associated Facilities and the Implementation guide for IAEA Security of Radioactive Material in Use and Storage. A special attention during the overview was attributed to the appointment of national focal points for the transportation of sources and other nuclear material. A comparative analysis of bilateral versus multilateral arrangements for exchange of information on sources crossing borders allowed to outline the advantages of both approaches to cooperative interaction that allow actions that go…
Ceremony in Nairobi for awarding certificates to the winners of the ISTC – KEBS Essay Competition

Tuesday December 21st, 2021

On 20 December 2021 at the Kenyan Bureau of Standards Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, an award ceremony took place at which certificates were presented to the winners of the ISTC–KEBS Essay Competition on the topic ‘How international cooperation can boost research and development in my area of expertise?’ Kenya is about to accede as a new State Party to the International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC) from Africa. The competition was launched to celebrate this event. A total of thirty-five essays were submitted by contestants across Kenyan academia, research institutes and individual experts. ISCT, Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS), Eastern Africa Association of Radiation Protection (EAARP), Kenya Young Generation in Nuclear and National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) provided assessors for the submitted essays. A good number of submissions examined the topic comprehensively and added that networking on matters related to nuclear science and technology would alleviate challenges Kenya and other African countries face. The winner of the competition is Stefan Mwale, final year student in mechanical engineering at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Nyeri, Kenya. In his essay he wrote, inter alia: ‘… the activities of the European Union are evidence that the global approach to…