UN-NYG Tours Seibersdorf Laboratories
On Friday, 18 August 2017, 20 UN-NYG members from the IAEA and UN visited the IAEA Seibersdorf Laboratories located 35 kilometers southeast of Vienna. In total, the IAEA maintains eight nuclear applications laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria. The UNNYG community was able to visit four labs, to gain insights on a range of subject areas, including applied research and development activities. During the two hour tour, UN-NYG members visited the Insect and Pest Control Lab (IPCL), the Plant Breeding and Genetics Lab (PBG), the Dosimetry Lab (DOL) and, the Nuclear Science and Instrumentation Lab (NSIL). The IPCL lab explained the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which is used by the IAEA to combat insect pest populations such as fruit flies, tsetse flies and mosquitoes in its Member States in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The PBG lab demonstrated how the IAEA manages to strengthen food security in its Member States, by making certain crops resistant to drought and disease and increase their resilience to climate change. In the Dosimetry lab, UN-NYG members learned how the IAEA ensures safe and effective use of radiation in cancer treatment and how calibration services are provided worldwide to its Member States. Lastly, the NSIL lab illustrated how nuclear science and instrumentation are used in environmental monitoring, material science and to preserve cultural heritage. Participants of the tour are now more fully aware of the scope of the IAEA’swork and better understand how assistance is being delivered to IAEA Member States in the areas of human health, food and agriculture, environmental monitoring and assessment and on the use of nuclear analytical instrumentation. Ms. Suad Mohamad, one of our UN-NYG Members stated that: "The education tour to IAEA Laboratories in Seibersdorf was an interesting trip and full of investment in knowledge that enables us to familiarise ourselves with the activities that are carried out in the labs especially how they contribute to the delivery of the TC programmes in the Member States. We were enlightened on a number of peaceful uses of nuclear applications used within the four different laboratories visit. I would conclude saying the trip had a tremendous positive impact and source of platform whereby useful data were obtained related to nuclear science and technology." If you would like to read more on the Seibersdorf Laboratories, please click here. For more detailed information on the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), please click here. For more details on the Plant Breeding and Genetics Laboratory, click here. Special thanks to Mr Daniil Popovich for his fantastic pictures! Article written by Kirsten Virginia Glenn UNNYG Communications and Liaison Officer
