How nuclear science can help address global challenges

okay we might make a start now it's my great privilege to do the acknowledgment today acknowledgment of country and we are greeting our visitor today on the nunawal and nambry lands and as you survey the scenery behind our speaker ever think about the 30 000 years that they've looked after land and how as a shared contribution to that land we might all do that together at that point I'd like to introduce our President and Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University Brian Schmidt thank you Tim and welcome everyone I'm glad to see that we're taking the undergraduate approach which is to spread out across the entirety of the auditorium anyway so uh Tim thank you for your acknowledgment uh to Country and I too pay my respects to Elders past and present of the notawan nambry people so it is a great pleasure today to welcome deputy director General najat mukhtar this afternoon to the Australian National University and to host the iaea once again of course this year is not like other years uh there is a new focus on uh I guess uh atomic energy and its regulation in this country due to decisions of the Australian federal government uh Dr moktar was trained in Food and Health Sciences uh holds degrees from Laval University in Canada and the University of Dijon in France uh so I think you're a double doctor yes a real glutton for punishment uh she went on to be a Fulbright fellow at Johns Hopkins and then held several senior uh positions within Morocco for the fast for the past decade Dr mukhtar has worked at the iaea being section head in the human health division then a division director for Asia in the Pacific in the department of Department of technical cooperation before being appointed to a present role in January 2019. she has enormous experience in the benefits of nuclear science and what it can bring for Humanity and today will address how nuclear science can help address Global challenges and I think this is going to be one of the important things for us here in Australia to get our heads around is that we need to have a program here that goes beyond just a very small specific thing to do with nuclear submarines but rather one that brings all the good things it can into society it is a very Broad and important topic and one that I think universities need to make sure we get behind and do the best a whole of society a set of activities and I think in this sense Anu has a special role in Australia in this regard and I see a very diverse audience from Medical Science to plant Sciences uh to physicists of course mathematicians so a whole range of people here uh today and uh I guess uh it will be very exciting as I said to get your perspectives and uh for me I have long promised to come and visit Vienna to the agency and hopefully when I'm no longer Vice Chancellor I will be able to go meet my niece and nephew who live in in Vienna and come and finally visit so without further Ado I'll hand over to yourself thank you very much and [Applause] it's really an honor for me to be here with you all and in Australia in Canberra and with the students and with the senior fellow colleagues it brings me back to 20 years ago I was also at the University professor at University teaching biochemistry and food science and nutrition and really happy to see this old beautiful Auditorium very nice I don't know how much you know about the Ia um but I guess yeah this is I don't know if you have visited the international atomic energy here with our three buildings um my my office is in the in the left one we have 175 member states where 2500 staff at the iea but we have other un organization also that we are on the same site like unido the space agency and and and others um going back to the agency this is what you hear always in the news isn't it that nuclear Source find in Libya the head of the agency Watchdog this is what they call the agency Watchdog is going to Iran it's going to Russia it's going to Ukraine but I think many of you maybe they don't know that the agency has also an other um helmet which is the use peaceful use of nuclear technology for good and for helping member states for uh better well-being for health and well-being um let me just walk you through a little bit of history of the agency to really show you that it's all started with peaceful use of nuclear technology and um sorry go back to this is back in 1953 in New York when the the the president the president so there's the U.S President Eisenhower as in as in Howard yes I always have problem with names uh called for a new organization new agency to really tackle Atoms for Peace and if you allow me I want just to to to to to say a few words the word of the President Eisenhower himself the more important responsibility of this atomic energy agency would be to devise methods where to buy this fissionable material would be allocated to serve the peaceful pursuit of mankind experts would be mobilized to apply atomic energy to the need of Agriculture medicine and other principal activities a special purpose would be to provide abundant electricity in the power starved area in the world so it all started with the call to use atomic energy for peaceful use and then here is the the first site of the agency in 1957 if you have been to Vienna this is the uh you see International atomic energy I think is a which hotel was that the Grand Hotel Grand Hotel of the city of Vienna where the office of the agency was there and this is the sign in between the the first agency uh the Mr called the first DG of the agency with the prime minister of Austria again as you have heard that President Eisenhower calling for the application of Atoms for Peace this is the first laboratory mobile Laboratory back in 1958 it's donated by the us to start doing some research in Vienna and this is a uh the hofbork if you can see this is the palace hofberg one of the beautiful palaces in Vienna at the center so you see just I want to bring you back that it's all about peaceful use it's all about using harness into Atoms for Peace harnessing the atoms for medicine for food and agriculture then of course to harness the atoms you need to do research you need Labs you need to develop technology and this is the first groundbreaking of the Laboratories that we have in Vienna cyprusdorf laboratory it's 50 kilometers from Vienna and this is the DG uh call uh you know in the groundbreaking put in this token about first laboratory Aya Laboratory this is being like 61 years ago and of course now old Labs so we started since 10 years refurbishing these labs oh sorry let me go back here those are the first research in these Labs as you can see here this is a scientist trying to study uh the the response to radioactivity iodine radioactive assists the radioactivity in in time with cancer and here you see this portable centigraphy this is kind of we have now laboratory and I will show you a photo of the dosimetry lab in this presentation and here um the the greenhouse which is still there by the way where we were looking at varieties of rice here being treated by radiation and looking for new breeding for new varieties of rice so this is just to bring you back again on the type of research this is back in 1962 being done in the labs um then again in New York the member states were worried about the level of radioactivity in oceans and they have asked to ask the agency to do some measurements and to do some initiates a program to help countries Monitor and radioactivity around the world and here where Monaco principality of Monaco offered the infrastructure to host those Laboratories Marine Laboratories in Monaco and the first lab was at the oceanography Museum if you haven't visited I strongly recommend beautiful Museum in Monaco back to 1966 and here where the the building you see up there the building those are our Laboratories are on the right side the the three levels of the three Laboratories in Monaco tackling marine environment and here The Prince and our director General formal director General Alvarez in the opening ceremony um I'm not going to into details what we do maybe if you have a question on Marine environments and it will come maybe in the discussion here um just just here to highlight that agency uh and through the its director General we got the Nobel Peace Prize I was honored to be among the staff at that time and you can see here all the name of all the stuff recognition of the work of the staff to the peaceful use at that time in 2005 and the the price the money got followed on on this occasion director General here director General Brady and the late Amano DG they have dedicated this amount of money to do some research on cancer and on child malnutrition and at that time my background I was involved in the in the bringing building capacity building in human nutrition um again on the Laboratories as I have told you 61 years and those labs they host fellows we do science we do research and it was about time to renew renovate them and it took us 10 years almost 2023 it was now our our new Laboratories this is just I don't know if we have a yes this is the sterile insect laboratory where we use radiation to sterile male insects and release them in the in the wild so that they can depress the population of insects and and then we get rid of insects breasts like the fruit fly for example and this is environment friendly technology where we have been applying this it's in many countries particularly in Latin America um we'll get in in U.S as well bringing

uh income generation to many farmers um here and and on this oh sorry um going back um here we have our the agriculture laboratory three Laboratories we have joined uh center with FAO where we really apply the technology throughout the Spectrum from Soil and Water monitoring plant breathing Animal Health food safety and insects and Pest Control uh so we are almost finishing in 2024 we are going to have eight new brand new Laboratories and again you are welcome to visit we host almost 1 500 visitors per year and uh and we host uh hundreds of fellows from all over the world and we do science there CRPS what we call coordinated research program where we bring being bring institutions from developed and developing countries to work on common issues like water soil and plant plant production human health its environmental monitoring marine environment um we have like we are working with more than 1 000 institutions worldwide and let me then give you uh just a brief on the application that we are doing um of course what we do is always because we're dealing with radiation we make sure that Safety and Security is taken care of and of course those are the three main pillars of the work we do at the agency safeguarding and verification making sure that the the the the Declaration of nuclear material at cancer level is well monitored Safety and Security making sure that all the work that we are doing using nuclear radiation is following the Safety and Security guidelines and of course the science and technology which is in the department I'm I'm heading right now the work we do as I have mentioned uh tackled several it goes from Human Health to food security water security environmental monitoring um uh and marine environment as well and of course all it's linked to the sustainable development goals we are directly involved in nines sdgs and were indirectly linked to almost all of the sdgs let me just give you some examples here um on on water what we do and I think some of you particularly we were working with them is really to use um stable and radio isotope 2 Data water underground water to look at the Aging as you know more old is the water more hard to refurbish that's water so given this information to policy makers they can have this data to manage better their underground water so where is the water how old is it how good is it and how long that's water can stay there and of course this is linked to the cycle of water surface water also the precipitation the agency held the biggest database on precipitation called global Global Network on on precipitations so this is very useful and we are modeling this so you can predict and you can tell to the country about the water reserves in the coming five or ten years this is very useful and we are building capabilities throughout the world now looking at um how we can build capacities network of labs what's our Labs so that they can water has No No's no borders so we need to really communicate among countries this is about agriculture as I told you we have with FAO where we use the technology to look at varieties of plants that they are resistant to diseases varieties of plants that they can grow and saline soil for example and and this is very useful particularly now we are talking about climate change this is global issue and so far we have more than 3 000 varieties of plants you name it rice barely wheat and this is very uh very useful also in terms of yields and in terms of resistance to diseases after that we of course we look also at the Harvest and the nuclear technology can preserve food this is food safety aspects we build uh technology we build Laboratories we and infrastructure and countries to make sure that the food is safe from contaminants but also from pests through radiation if you are a date for example an apple it can stay for more than one year on your desk and I have experienced that and and what are the same so that's that's an aspect that you don't need to use uh any other aspects to to to get rid of the pests um we we also use a radiation for um uh I said I said for for sterile insects I have mentioned this before to also it's which is an environment from the technology to get rid of fruits flight for example but now we are using it also for mosquito to get rid of the Dengue Fever some aspects of malaria Etc Animal Health is a big program in our Laboratories and we are building more than 145 I think 45 animal Laboratories Veterinary worldwide to really use the technology rtpcr biosafety cabinets and radiation to empower vaccines this is also a new area and and this is to uh has what's been it was has been this laboratory has been very instrumental during covid-19 provided support to many countries on the detection of kovid um on human health also its big program at the agency we cover human health from prevention nutrition program I have mentioned this morning that we are building a database on local food like arborigine Foods where we look at nutritional value but we'll go beyond that we look at the absorption in the body and if if the products or the food we say it's rich in iron how much of that iron is efficient and and to to Really enhance the iron content in the body moving also to diagnosis with nuclear medicine you know you go to the dentist is x-ray you do you have all done CT scan or pet scan so this is also an area we don't machine but we train Healthcare Health stuff on the machine we make sure that the radiation is used in proper way we make sure that the that the education models are education documents are also shared by uh with the with universities and and we work together really to use digital learning uh in this area radiotherapy Radiation Medicine radiotherapy is also a big program this is in our lab you remember I showed you the first laboratory of dosimetry on on on iodine thyroid cancer this is the the latest linear accelerator for radiotherapy so here we don't treat patient but here we train we make sure that those is enough it's not too much not too little and we are providing services to more than three thousand Laboratories worldwide so they send us to those we make sure we and we return back and we do a lot of proficiency testing this is also a who collaborating Center we have all this is a part of the dosimetry work that we are doing um uh on this is on on human health I hope I covered it uh of course this industrial application is a big topic also we have a department of physics and chemistry we don't have a big accelerator at our site but we collaborate with other centers like here with and store on using the radiation technology for to help in Industrial Development here for example cables this is in Brazil where we where we worked with them to develop uh technology ebim technology to strengthen the cable car cables for example sterilization of medical materials syringes masks Etc sterilization of food you saw this is the Ducks I think for also to make for for also safety aspects and of course radio pharmaceutical aspects um again here we have a big program on uh I hope yeah audio pharmaceutical production we have a a program that we help can't really sit in the facility making sure that they are using their producing radio pharmaceutical in safe and secure manner however unfortunately production already pharmaceutical or Radiation Medicine is not widely or distributed in the world there are few countries that they have the luxury to have access to radiation medicine or access to radio pharmaceutical or even access to a radiation technology for industrial application still a lot work to be done ahead and now moving to a marine environment you know or environmental Assessments in general we have a lab on terrestrial environment and I mentioned we have Marine Laboratories in in Monaco and here mainly we help member states to produce good data and to do that we need standards and this is what we do we produce standards this is even we don't have C this is whatever you want to measure in the C you need to use to compare it to the Vienna uh uh water standards that we have produced in our Laboratories the CO2 for greenhouses green cars houses was produced in our lab the standard of CO2 we have hundreds of standards that we produce and we produce also with our collaborating centers to make sure that the measurements are done properly we run also proficiency testing with many Labs early we have at least 50 proficiency testing worldwide in many areas to monitor the environment but to monitor also Marine environments um as as I've told you um we have been doing this for 60 years but we are not funding agency we are technical agency so we do research in our lab once the proof of concept is there it's been transferred to the member states for sustainability transfer to the member states we don't scale we just teach them how to use the technology we train we set small facility we help them having again proof of Concepts but then it's up to the country to scale it up because then it needs funding when our director General Mr Grossi came on board he said we need to do something because we cannot just transfer this technology and see it sit in there because usually we are not talking to finance minister or to the minister of Agriculture or to the minister of Health we are talking to technical institutions that they need to take this technology and build it there and that's when you have that Hub it has to be communicated in the country but of course we always face the stigma of nuclear be a nuclear organization whatever comes as soon as you say the word nuclear this it's the the people will will run away and they didn't want to talk to us particularly when you go and say um I can help you in agriculture say well FAO is there they can help us in agriculture or on human health well double what is the role of who so all these questions about what is the role of the Aya why IA is here why is working on human health or in agriculture our other areas so we need to find this Niche that we are part of the of the puzzle we are not coming to compete with who with FAO we are coming to be part of the solution to bring the solution on board technology technology driven and this is the message that we are trying to communicate all the time director General said um during the covid-19 for example he said if member State came to iaea asking for help on to fight covet 19. it's because they know I hear first you know what we can do what we can deliver and because they are they need they need us they need help we provided help to more than 300 Laboratories and after that our director General said this is not the last pandemic we will have others it's better be ready and this is why he launched an initiative called zodiac zoonotic diseases integrated action which aimed mainly at making making sure that developing under developing and least developed countries they have the necessary infrastructure to be able to go and see what is out there to analyze detect viruses pathogens that can be of threat to humans until this has been launched like two years ago now we have 128 laboratory worldwide where we are building this capability doing training together and sharing the best practices in a platform that you can by the way you can visit it's I the Zodiac Zodiac zodiac.io.org so you can have all the information available um we do also research here because we want to know what could be out there in each and every region that can be of threat to humans so we go sample soil environment water to be able to detect um this uh these pathogens uh as I mentioned we have marine environment a program very rich every year we have visitors in October we have a member State we have the ambassadors coming to visit the Marine laboratory in Monaco we had the honor to have the Ambassador from Australia visiting last year and here we look at I mentioned the radioactivity in oceans with 180 Laboratories but in addition to that now we are looking also at climate change ocean acidification the ocean warming and solutions like blue carbon how we can measure the blue carbon how we can monitor it and here is about Plastics all of us we know that plastic is pro problem worldwide microplastic is problem worldwide but how we measure it how we assess it what are the data there are none nowhere and as we speak member states are discussing of uh a treaty that they should be signing to get rid of plastic how we can monitor the treaty and this is what our laboratory in Monaco with other Laboratories including ansto here in Australia we are developing best methods guidelines how to measure microplastics how to monitor it and also we are looking at Upstream Parts how we can use radiation technology to recycle plastic how we can change the structure of the plastic recycling to another product that can be reused or amalgamate to another product oh sorry I did something wrong yeah yeah um just going back to the plastic part we are also looking at how we can use produce biodegradable plastic and this is something that we are doing with unsto looking at the biomass radiation biomass with some chemicals and producing biodegradable plastic this is a cool part that we are really looking forward um I mentioned the the the the health program at the iaea and here again our director General uh launched initiative called rise of Hope because um maybe here in Australia everyone has access to Radiation Medicine to diagnosis but I'm from Moroccan from Africa Morocco maybe we have some linear accelerators but 70 percent of African population they don't have access to Radiation Medicine so that means because they are in Africa their faith is already there you've got cancer you don't have access to Radiation Medicine you can't you don't have money to go to another country you are going to die this is any tickle and unacceptable and this is what we are fighting for at the iea is to really that wherever you live should not decide on how long you are going to live and and the the the idea is to team up with developed countries to team up with banks with donors to to build Radiation Medicine to build nuclear medicine diagnosis early diagnosis and to build uh uh radiotherapy uh centers to make sure that each and everyone have access to radiation uh I was saying that one month ago I was in Morocco and there is this woman that lives 700 kilometers far away from the capital she was diagnosed with breast cancer when he late and she has to go for treatment she has to travel to the capital and then she was given an appointment seven for seven months she died because she could not wait and the cancer does not wait and this is unacceptable so we have to do something about it now we have countries coming to be part of this initiative and we already started with some countries in Africa we need everyone everyone because the the work at hand is really so too big to close the gap and but we have to start somewhere um water is an issue everywhere and I heard also Australia it's a big issue and I showed you that we can use the technology really to manage better Water Resources in Australia maybe it's it's possible because wonderful scientists wonderful infrastructure but in countries like Niger or Mauritania Morocco as well um water is a problem but to manage water we need data and we have been in New York uh with Nora like in March where on the water Summit the U.N water and everybody was saying we need data to manage water we cannot just wait for for precipitation and see okay well my well we will I will have some water in my world so we need to build these capabilities the science science for policies and this is what we are doing now is we are launching a network of Laboratories what's our laboratory is that they will be able to monitor map the water resources and provide this data to policy makers to manage better for example agricultural program um yeah uh we we all heard about uh uh artificial intelligence and Big Data Etc so we cannot talk about science without talking about artificial intelligence without talking about Big Data at the agency we have almost 20 databases where this is wealth where we can do some modeling and we can provide some some information to the member states so we are next week we are having a big meeting at the iaea where we looking at how our AI for good how artificial intelligence we can use it to really harness the technology but to provide support on all those topics that they have mentioned to you and of course to harness digital artificial intelligence and digital in general we cannot work in silos we need we need mathematicians we need physi physic Specialists we need uh medical doctors to work together to be able to find the solution to the problem at hand to the agriculture Etc so this is also New Era where we really uh as scientists we need to go and look at the the door uh next door to say hey what what are you working what are you doing and to see how you can help me and how I can help you with the work I'm doing and again here as organization we cannot work alone we don't have the unique the the Silver Bullet solution and that's why we need to work with other organizations I've mentioned to you that here is uh we're signing with France uh initiative that also prepare for a pandemic preparedness and we are working together with FAO with who Etc so we need to complementarities with Academia with industry with the um also International organizations um uh I mentioned that science cannot be just in our Corner our lab working in science we need to spread the word and go out and talk about the work we do um when I go out it happened to me that I was talking to a colleague from un organizations just going to see how we can collaborate uh and and and when I told her I'm coming from iea and we use nuclear nuclear technology she said I don't want to talk to you I talk because I have nothing to do with nuclear so it just already when we when we we hear we hear the word nuclear people the the runway and this is where we need to really talk about bring the youth uh bring the the the what to understand understand it open mind open to science and and because this is the future we not only nuclear technology but science in in general so science and diplomacy it's an area that we need also to develop further and this is what we're trying to work on also at the iea I think I'm almost there thank you very much and I hope I did not uh make you sleep after lunch so thank you and I'll be open to questions thank you [Applause] foreign [Applause] thank you very much for your wonderful talk I'm curious uh as to it looks like you have a lot of really fascinating initiatives going on I'm wondering how we can best get involved and contribute to someone that I is working on thank you um you can reach out to us as I have said like for example on zodiac we have a website on for the cancer initiative also we have a website that that it's there and we will come anyone who want to come on board and contribute either through um as to spread the word we need young women and young men to really be with us and wherever they go they can they can talk about the work we do so you can reach out to us I can give you my business card here is Nora I can also give you hers but also reach out to um what is cancer for all the hashtag cancer for all I can still care for all okay because so we have uh you you if you go to the Aya website you will find some information but feel free to reach out to me and I can give you more information thank you or thank you for your interest I think we have a question here right thanks so much and um I completely agree with the previous question which is the breadth of what you support is really impressive but that brings us with its own challenge which is how do you set priorities for a very busy agency with limited resources so many problems to tackle do you set them by region how do you how do you decide for example for the Asia Pacific where the agency will focus its energies and efforts for the next 12 months okay very good question we have a procedures um on Research we said we said the the the topic of research this is agency technical our technical stuff they said the topic of research based on the global issues like climate change we look at what what can nuclear technology can do once we we call on couple of experts they they put the concept together and we call for proposal foreign on our website you will see the call for proposal for research this is building research capacity in countries that's one part once the research is set and we have proof of concept then we transfer to the member states how member State they will come to us let's say um Nepal will come and say well it's not nuclear uh Power as a country but they will say I want support on water and health and agriculture Maybe so that's so we have a document called country program framework where country set these priorities and and then we work with the country so we transfer the technology we say okay which institution you want us to work with you will name our counterparts and we start training and building this capability that's one side now on this big big um initiative that's mentioned I have mentioned like zodiac or race of Hope we call countries that they want to come and participate with us so they will send us a formal letter say Okay I want to be part of new tech plastic I want to be part of zodiac but then here um we look again at the country and if the developed like Australia Australia will be partner in this initiative Australia will accompany us to give services to Southeast Asia to small island States Etc so this is how we we collaborate now on how to choose how we choose those topics is again globally cancer is a big issue and we have the mandates of Radiation Medicine zoonotic disease is still a big issue each one who can do whatever they can the contribution is not enough food security food safety Etc so this is how we operate we choose Global priorities there is one yeah thanks so much for your presentation and my name is Akil Akbar I was a researcher now gone to the dark side of commercialization what I'm interested in is how the iaea partners with companies to be able to get impact particularly we're considering the sharing of detector from xyro is it a similar sort of thing and how do we actually then get impact yeah also very good question thank you you know we are demand driven for member member states we have 170 member states so we we serve them because they pay us this is where our money comes from now the politics of the Aya we are now opening to the private sector for example on Rays of Hope We Are partnering with with the big producer of linear accelerators to be able to provide training capacity building and also she give us good price for the market so that's one way another way is for example we are working with companies fertilizers companies where they said we want to use we want to see how our products is used on the ground by plants so that we are also we want to contribute to the to the global efforts on climate change so we do research just to also advise how much fertilizer would be needed in plants so this is one way other other other companies we also that they need specific products that to test it in multi-center study so if they can contribute funding and it's beneficial to all our member states we will partner with them to do that study so it depends on the case but now we are more open to work with private sector thank you thank you for your most stimulating talk could you comment on your agency's attitude to modular nuclear reactors two modular nuclear reactors yeah you mean the the new era like the the small mediums the small model of reactors the smrs you know it's uh an area where there is a lot of talk now and the eye is is up as front line to make sure that the coming that the information given to the member says is accurate so we are developing our report on the studies being done many countries to make sure that the information given to the members is accurate we are also working on regulatory aspects and we have several meetings on regulatory how what would be the what the regular what would be the regulator regulator's role also legal aspects so it's all working Pro in in progress but this is something that we are in front line looking at how this will evolve thank you thanks very much um you commented several times during your presentation on the stigma that's attached to the word nuclear and you know that's something that we've very much used to in this country as well um and you know the way to approach that is to construct The Narrative around the peaceful uses of nuclear technology of course but could you comment on the particular strategies that you have at the iaea to hopefully overcome some of this stigma we're doing in different different lines having these big initiatives going out like this the water initiative the the Rays of Hope initiative is really bringing we are not talking to only research institutions but we are going to the top level to really sensitize the policy makers Finance Minister Health minister to tell the mayor we are here and we can help you so help me to help you this is what DJ always says so where I think if you look at countries that they are embarking on nuclear power the first thing that starts with is nuclear institution on Peaceful use First so so that they can bring the community around to say hey we are here to serve you so not starting with the nuclear power nuclear energy but starting with water agriculture that's one way but at the end of the day we're talking about atoms and how to harness the atoms for for for for peaceful use and this is everywhere you can't do science without harnessing the atoms and I think we need to bring this down to the atom level to atom saves lives and this is what we do we are having a ministerial Conference next year we're bringing Ministers of Health minister of Agriculture from all over the world to really talk about what has been achieved impact success stories that's important uh cost effectiveness yeah how much you would invest in conventional methods and in nuclear method then how much time you would gain how much money that's that's language that I think everyone can understand thank you Steve and I'll let that be the last question because I'm sure a few of us are happy to come and join us for one afternoon tea but I'd like to thank Dr mukhtar today for your inspiring talk and for all the wonderful questions um please join to me with me thanks [Applause]

2023-06-03 19:31

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