The first grid, all the delegates at the African news,
Newt Lea Summit for 2021.
That is held under the theme, the impact of nuclear science and technology applications
on economic recovery in Africa post COVID-19 pandemic.
So I had time to think a little bit about this presentation
because I had committed to speak on this title,
I think a month or so ago, and since then I've had time to reflect
and make determination that it would best serve the conference
if it is given from an narrow perspective of Africa.
So this topic, I chose it because I felt and found it to be very fascinating.
It's not an area within which I'm an expert,
but I felt it was important because it touches,
it speaks to the heart of some of the problems that we are facing in the continent.
Then I felt that it is important that we engage on it as young people
and see if we cannot take it up, especially with regards to the support
that is given by the IAEA to the member stage,
with regards to the management of a disused sealed radioactive sources globally.
So that is sort of like a background on what informed this particular presentation.
So let me first start by saying that the sealed radioactive sources in themselves
are used extensively globally.
They are used in agriculture, they are used in industry,
they are used in medicine and various research areas all around the world
because these sources from them being manufactured
have certain advantages that can be explored in these different industries,
especially for instance in the medicine industry such as cancer treatment
and imaging and all those aspects.
So they are important and the world needs them.
And with regards to the total inventory of these sources worldwide,
well it's not immediately conclusive as to what are the numbers,
but it is estimated that there are a million of these sources that are moving around
across the world from the manufacturers going to the end users and so on and so forth.
So the majority of these sources are very small in size,
but they contain a very high concentration of radio-nucleides and emit intense radiation.
And as a result would require heavy shielding in terms of the type of containers that are used to contain them.
And the intended purpose of that is for safe use as well as when they are being transported and stored.
So from the IAEA there is 11 isotopes of concern that have been identified from a safety perspective.
And these are as outlined there, Cobalt 60s, cesium 137,
radium 192, strontium 90, and radium 241 and so on and so forth.
And these are used in different applications.
But the Center for Nonproliferation Studies classifies out of these 11, 7 radio isotopes
that are considered to be of particular greatest security risk.
And these are those that have been outlined there.
So what normally happens is that these type of sources are produced in pellets,
or in this instance Cobalt 60 or in powder form, for instance, cesium 137.
And because of that nature of their compactness and characteristics from the way that they are produced,
they can easily in the wrong hands be used in what is loosely named dirty bombs,
or otherwise formerly known as explosive devices.
Now these radio isotopes have many end users as you would imagine,
because we use them around the world in the fields that I've already mentioned.
And because of that particular point, they require a stringent high priority controls
from a regulatory perspective, from a security perspective,
as well as from a safety or radiation protection perspective.
So this is the crux of what now comes through as disused radioactive,
sealed radioactive sources.
Because what ends up happening is that with these sealed radioactive sources,
once they reach their end of life, they become disused or spent,
and they need to be handled appropriately.
Okay, so what do we talk about when we talk about disused sealed radioactive sources?
So these are sources that are no longer in use as authorized,
because the sealed radioactive sources need to be authorized from the manufacturer
for the specific papers that they are intended for.
But once they are depleted or spent or no longer fit for papers as authorized,
then they become disused sealed radioactive sources,
because they are no longer suitable for their intended papers due to over time radioactive decay.
However, the DSRS, even when they are disused or spent,
they still process highly radioactive in their makeup.
They are highly radioactive and a potential hazard to human health as well as the environment.
Now, accidents with these sources in the past,
and I'm not going to go deeper into these types of accidents.
There have been a number of them around the world.
These types of accidents have resulted in contamination of large areas.
And these areas, once they are contaminated,
they require costly cleanup operations for mitigation of the consequences of such accidents.
You can imagine the costs that are involved as well as the human resources,
as well as the impact to the environment,
and God forbid, the health effects that might result if human beings are exposed.
Now, in order to prevent radiological accidents from these sources as well as injuries,
especially when using these high activities filled radioactive sources,
we require a regulation of these sources.
And these are those that are listed there.
The need of a prior authorization, as I've already mentioned,
these are authorized from the manufacturers and the regulators need to also know about them.
There has to be systems in place to be able to know where these sources come from,
whether they are intended purposes and they are utilized for their intended purposes.
And of course, harmonization of source records.
You need to know what source it is,
and what is the activity of the source as well as other characteristic information with regards to that source,
so that you can be able to track it properly.
And of course, that follows to the third point, which is strict source tracking.
You need to know at all material times where these sources are,
where they end, where they come from, follow them throughout,
and this is done through records.
People, of course, need to be trained in order to handle these programs properly,
especially the users, either hospitals or in the agricultural sector or in industry or in any other area where they are utilized.
Now, as you know, historically, these sources have been used,
but as now new regulations, especially the setup of regulatory framework in a lot of countries,
you find a situation where the recording of these sources starts at the time where the regulatory framework is set up.
And therefore, there is a high risk of having offend sources,
which are sources that are out there, but you would not otherwise know about them
because the regulatory framework started capturing records from the point when it was activated as a regulator of a particular state.
Then, of course, you have to also have establishment of financial provisions for the safe management.
You have to have the financial setup so that you can be able to handle these sources,
and once they are depleted, be able to condition and address them accordingly.
So, at times, you'll find that the users resort to return or transfer disused sources to a supplier
or to a recognized installation provided that it is available in the country.
Now, there are handling options that are available.
It's storage, which might happen at the user's site or collection,
where the country has a central management facility,
or there could be recycling if the country has facilities to recycle these products
or dispose of those, as well as retaining them to the original supplier.
Now, this is the cycle of a sealed radioactive source.
It comes from the manufacturer, and then from there, it is exported or imported,
depending on which country you are dealing with, and it is distributed across the globe.
And of course, it is installed wherever it is required,
and there is also commissioning as required by the facility.
Then it is used once it is exhausted or depleted or spent or disused,
then there has to be decommissioning as well as disposal, and the cycle goes round and round.
And throughout the cycle of this, there has to be control measures that are in place.
They call this role and responsibilities within the cycle of these sources as proposed in the previous slide,
such that you have users, and these are the entities or organizations that need to declare
that the source is no longer in use, either to return it to the supplier,
prepare funding for end-of-life management of the disused sources.
Then the suppliers and the manufacturers are those that would accept the return of the source,
they have supplied, or to support the return of those manufactured by others in case of source exchange,
to develop coordinated approach among manufacturers.
The waste management are those that would have the responsibility and the role to develop and implement a final disposal plan,
which may be different from country to country, and clearly defines waste processes and associated criteria
and costs for the effective management of the sources.
Then there is policymakers who go hand in hand, of course, with the regulators.
They are the ones who define the rules and the regulations in the first of those regulations, etc., etc.
Then the transport and logistics. How do these sources get transported from one place to the next?
And these stakeholders have the role and responsibility of making sure that they are shipped,
to ensure that the logistic chain is professionally dealt with.
And carried out using or following regulatory requirements.
Then the law enforcement, because these can also be stolen, they can also fall into the wrong hands.
So these guys, they have to make sure that they are the first respondents to the incident
and also address issues of national response, as well as providing security during transportation.
So from the cycle of the source that I've shown you from manufacturing up until disposal,
things are not always as straightforward as that cycle shows.
There are certain things that normally happen that, of course, cause a lot of problems with these type of sources.
For instance, there are studies that have been done by the EU Commission on these disused, still radioactive sources.
And what they show is that these sources, once they come from the manufacturers and they are taken to the equipment and installed,
and then the user gets hold of them. The user has to use them. They can either recycle them or keep them under maintenance.
But what is important is what comes in the next level, which is that these sources can end up being lost
or they can end up being disused and recorded appropriately and stored by the user.
Or in other instances, you may find that there is an unauthorized disposal because the cost of actually handling these disused radioactive sources
is so large that the user does not want to deal with them.
So if things go according to plan, what you end up with is a central facility where they are conditioned and there is long-term interim storage
with the aim of having an approved disposal at a later stage.
Now, within the African continent, these sealed radioactive sources, of course, are used just like the rest of the world
in industrial medicine in research.
And it is expected that the trend is going to grow, especially with the blowing up of the African population
and developments that are happening, which we are trying to address, of course, through our respective areas such as nuclear, peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
And then, of course, industrialization and high standards of living.
The standards of living increases to find that the application of radioactive sources in the medical fraternity in industry, in research groups.
And therefore, we are accumulating more and more sealed radioactive sources and as a result, eventually end up with a huge amount of disused sealed radioactive sources.
So the infrastructure in the African continent of the management of DSR-SS is not uniform and has its own challenges.
Among the factors, of course, that are hampering a progress are the financial constraints. As you know, that there's a lot of African countries who are having financial constraints such that they prioritize certain areas
and end up neglecting this particular area.
The second one is that there is absent or incomplete inventories. There is no proper tracking of these disused radioactive sources.
And as a result, we don't know where they are and then we cannot track them. They can fall into any hands or expose the population if people are not conscientized and are not aware of their existence in the area.
The inappropriate storage or disposal, which is a very important one and in fact, the cracks of the matter in our discussion today.
Then there's also the limited number of qualified and experienced staff and that's why now as young people who are in the nuclear industry, especially in this conference, it becomes important to look into this matter and see what roles we can play in advocating and advancing this particular area
and making sure it is capacitated properly with qualified and experienced staff.
Now, the lack of awareness of the importance of safe and secure management of DSR SS may be, of course, compounding the problem because if we are not aware, then we have problems and it is not the public only that is not aware.
Also, you find that even in the different industries, they are not aware of how to handle these things. They just leave them exposed or they just put them away without recording properly of their existence.
And as a result, as management changes or leadership changes, then we lose track of this disused radioactive sources.
Now, 70% of the IE member states in the African region are classified as least developed countries and majority of these countries have limited resources, both from a financial as well as technical perspective.
And they lack the capacity to manage this DSR SS sources.
And as a result, they are unable to estimate the inventory as I've already mentioned, both those that are stored as well as those that are disposed. They are unable to estimate the number of sources that are available, either those that are purchased or those that are displayed as disused.
They are unable to understand the full cycle of the sealed radioactive sources, where they come from manufacturing and where they end.
So to speak, from cradle to grave as demonstrated by that cycle of the source life that I've shown you in one of my slides.
There is also an inability to adequately estimate the number of lost or offend sources simply because the regulatory format that is implemented, you will find that it is not checking the sources that existed before it came into being.
They are also unable to determine the actual number of sources that are lost from the system of regulatory control because not only are we dealing with lost or offend sources that came before regulatory framework, but you may have instances where sources are lost, even with the regulatory framework in place.
Because in some instances you find that the regulatory framework is not well capacity.
And you find that a lot of countries have no long term disposal route available for these disused sealed sources.
And have limited interim storage facilities and their management practices, including the storage on the site or collection, central management facilities recycling or sending them back to the supplier.
These are not well established and if they are, they are really varied at different levels.
Regulations relating to the use of sources are also limited with a lot of these countries on the continent.
Now what we need is a proper management of these disused sealed radioactive sources.
Going further, of course, there are those that are high activity radioactive sources, which are shards.
And these are the type of sources that require proper high technical levels of handling such as hot cells.
And they are the most problematic to handle and require specialized trained staff.
So we have to have also the clear defined standards procedures as well as suitable technologies to be able to handle this.
And I've already mentioned one of them, which is hot cells.
Of course, they come with their own tools and so on and so forth.
Now, as far as I know, NEXA, especially on the continent is one institution that has this particular type of tools that they have been able to build.
Together with the expertise over a number of years.
And here I'm talking about the hot cells that can be able to be taken to countries and this has already happened already in the continent with a number of countries such as Tanzania.
And also they've helped with in Ghana, of course, with the boreholes and so on and so forth.
But these are far in between and fragmented projects.
They have to be well coordinated, they have to be more spread out and capture as much African countries as possible.
Now, these expertise are what are required, of course, in order to be able to do this type of work and they've been developed over the years with working with the IEA,
the Mangala stakeholders in the framework of management of GSRSS. They are also other countries, of course, that are doing this type of management, but I'm focusing more on the African continent because we are talking about the solutions that we as Africans are able to bring amongst ourselves
and collaborate and partner in order to make sure that we address these problems.
The IEA, of course, plays an instrumental and a very fundamental and powerful role in making sure that it continues to assist with strengthening of national regulatory infrastructures in these member states.
And this can be in capacity building, staff training, expertise and so on and so forth, and also in making sure that when member states come to the IEA seeking assistance, they are able to provide that assistance which may come in financial contributions to be able to run those particular projects of addressing the issue of GSRSS management.
Now, it is my belief that these partnerships and collaborations, especially on the African continent, must be strengthened in order to address the issues of management of GSRSS either through the transfer to another authorized users or to attend to the suppliers and manufacturers or storage prior to disposal or disposal using both technical and expertise that are required.
Awareness around GSRSS is of course a priority and we as the AYGN, as the champions and as the advocates of this peaceful uses of nuclear technology must at all material times seek to push this awareness and make sure that these are handled properly because failure to do so would mean that
these are exposed to nefarious entities that might use them for nefarious intents and as a result, swell the image of the industry that we're working within, which is already getting and receiving a pattern as things stand.
So it is an area that we should not neglect and we are at an advantageous position because we have the YGNs in their own respective countries that can actually work hand in hand with their own countries and the regulators and safety institutions to make sure that the safety and security of these particular sources becomes paramount and it is addressed,
to be looked into and in fact if necessary we go into it and train and take advantages of the opportunities that the IAE is providing us and make sure that we become specialists in this area, we become experts in this area to make sure that we assist our countries in handling this particular issue.
Now in closing, I'd like to say that these pictures actually demonstrate what can happen with these type of sources. The way that they are stored is really, leaves a lot to be desired in many instances and sometimes they end up being lost because of that area and they end up in wrong hands and sometimes you find that
they're in casing that are used to store them, deteriorate and they can no longer be transported properly and so on and that in itself is an area that requires a lot of understanding because it's quite broad in terms of how these are handled, how they are transported, where they can be stored.
Some countries like Ghana are using the borehole, they are looking into the borehole, others are looking into interim storages, others are looking to send them back to the suppliers but each and every one of these areas requires proper assessment, proper study because they are pros and cons that are associated with it.
For instance, the licensing of the equipment of the transporting systems that can be used to send to foreign countries where these sources come from, of course also geopolitical issues are also involved, so we need to understand this area quite well.
We need to look into it, I'm aging our delegates who come from all these African countries to go into our respective countries and champion this course, look into it, investigate it, study more about it, popularize it, partner with the IEA to look into it and look into other organizations such as the South African
Nuclear Energy Corporations and see how we can partner with these institutions because they have these tools and make provisions for budgeting and become the ambassadors of this area so that these sources are properly handled.
Thank you chair.
Thank you very much, doc for that presentation. We'll take questions now from our online community, you can raise your hands in the chat box and ask your question, we have a question here.
Thank you doc and actually for a wonderful presentation. My question is, do we have any statistics on countries that are effectively using inventories to manage their sources in Africa specifically.
Thank you for that question. Actually, that is a very, very, very important question and we are seized with understanding exactly that question because data from a statistic perspective, which is very important when you're doing market analysis and you try to understand
this particular area of DSRS, you will find that that information is very scammed, if not nonexistent and that is because these type of sources in their nature end up becoming a security matter.
So in order to be able to, and of course the situation is compounded by the fact that a lot of the African countries, they do not keep proper inventory and in many instances, that inventory is nonexistent.
So it is for this reason that we, why we need young people to get into this area and look into it with a microscope and come through the details of really coming with a proper record keeping of this inventory so that we can be able to answer this particular question that you've asked.
But indeed, a very brilliant question that you've asked. Thank you.
Thank you. The reason I was asking this question is because I've had the advantage of working on a tool that the IEA provides to manage sources.
So the tool is called RACE. It's an online system that is used to track sources that are used within the country and I guess if the delegates are interested in the program, they can actually visit the IEA website. Thank you.
Yes, maybe just as a follow up, I know exactly what you're talking about. We had a conference last week at the Afqanay and this was one of the issues that was talked about, the RACE.
And one of the complaints that came through was we need to have more and more countries volunteering that information into the database so that they can be proper recording of that database.
And of course, that database is not easily accessible to anybody.
But the advice that was given, which I feel that young people can exploit, is that each and every country has a champion who is designated purely because of their expertise and their technical know-how to work with the RACE database and volunteer this information because they would know where this information comes from and how accurate it is.
And therefore partnering with them as young people, you could be allowed to also access the database provided that you work with them closely to now update the database that comes from your respective countries. Thank you, Chen.
Thank you very much. We have another question. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, Mr. presenter. We all know how dangerous these sources could be. So my question is, if these sources are found in the industry or in hospitals, how does a regulatory body actually dispose of these sources?
Okay, thank you for that question. Actually, the question that you've just asked talks to the tools that are available.
And by the way, I should mention that the tools that are available to handle these type of sources are very limited globally.
And if you look at Africa itself, you have the tool in one country in South Africa, of course with the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, and depending on the type of radioactive sources that you are handling, especially these shards which are highly active, which require the hot cells and so on.
And the logistics of actually transporting these things are totally, it assists because these regulatory, buoyancy of these sources.
So the issue of how to dispose them, it is a partnership that comes through, either if the country has a budget, they can, of course, perhaps look to fund a project that can be able to address these things properly because they require handling.
It's not like you can just pick it up and put it some way. It's a protected process that requires regulatory, radiation protection, safety, security and all these measures and expertise that are intended in there.
And of course, if there's no budget, then you would of course rely on the IAEA to assist you provided the funds are available. But that is exactly the problem.
The lack of funding is the one that is causing a lot of problems. And I think perhaps it would not be far-fetched to say that the African countries, maybe perhaps through the framework of the Pellandava Treaty provision and through Avcona,
look into this matter and take advantage of AYGN, young people who are working in the industry to come up with ideas and concepts of how these things can be handled and make provision for a budget that can be intended to address this particular sources on the continent.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Thank you, Dr. Neftali for the interesting lecture. My question is regarding South African work in management of radioactive sources. Do you have physical protection systems because we have to make sure that those disposed source are not on the hand of terrorists.
Thank you.
That is a very important one that you have just mentioned, Tibian.
Yes, of course, there are those protective measures. These require protective gears and of course there are other presentations slides that I can share with the colleagues perhaps outside of the formal program without taking too much time of the chairperson
to demonstrate that these hot cells, which are used by using micromonipulators, which are hands that are used to handle the radioactive sources, especially when we are dismantling their cases and developing or rather putting them in newly manufactured
case cases so that they can be taken in a new casing that can be able to sustain itself for quite some time and stored at an appropriate facility which would have been designated by the regulator as well as the country and with security measures and the
radioactive protective as well as safety measures in place. The important thing with regards to the issue of terrorism and whatnot is that you don't want a situation where often sources that really needs to be found and can only be found through going through the records.
Really, you don't want them to end up in the wrong hands. You need to find them, but that requires a budget and it requires technical resources, which young people can play a role in there.
And secondary to that, these sources that are within the regulatory framework, in other words, those that are being handled by the regulator, also themselves will find that the regulator is not well-capacitated to follow through with the users as to where
their sources come from, where they are, what shape are they in, are they disused or are they still active, especially when they are becoming to be depleted. And you'll find that because they're supposed to be financial provision made by the users to say,
we are buying this particular source and to use it at the hospital or at an agricultural facility within the quotation or the amount or the cost of this source is provided for by the manufacturer.
In this picture, we are also including a provisional budget that is intended to make sure that when this source becomes disused, the budget is available to handle it properly in terms of storing it or disposing of it.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you very much.