The vision and agenda of activities of RCA addressed through the various
projects are geared towards exploitation of safe nuclear technologies to meet
sustainable development goals in the region. The RCA programmes are focused to
thematic areas like agriculture, health, industry, energy, environment and
radiation protection. The advances in the field of “Information Technology”
is being used to strengthen the institutional networks and to reach to a wider
population of end-users. Some of these achievements are illustrated below.
Distance-learning materials developed by RCA are now
being adopted in the other regions and being translated into other languages.
More than 200 students are enrolled in distance-learning programmes in the
Asia-Pacific region alone. These programmes are in nuclear medicine and tissue banking.
Distance-learning modules are now being piloted in
seven RCA countries involving 52 students; these materials are also available to
other regions and have been translated into other languages. The teaching
modules could be used as standard training materials in teaching radiation
protection to practitioners in radiation physics and users of radioactive
sources.
RCA MSs which include ASEAN countries, have now
agreed on a harmonised set of regulations on food irradiation and have fixed a
time table to adopt these regulations. The work was supported by ASEAN and
ICGFI. RCA MSs are also developing a set of protocols on the use of irradiation
for quarantine treatment. These protocols will be developed jointly with
countries belonging to the other regional agreements (AFRA and ARCAL) for
further harmonisation.
Extension work on the production of UMMB
supplementation feed has been expanded to many farms representing thousands of
farmers. With regards to animal reproduction, the software (AIDA) provided to
participating countries will enable them to keep systematic recording of
important data on each breeding animal and facilitates recording of progress on
AI.
Member States (MS) are applying this
technique to help solve problems in water resources management. Each country has
a project area to address any or all of these problems: pollution of aquifer,
salination, surface-groundwater interaction, and others. End-users are involved
from the very beginning of the project. RRUs have been identified and are being
used by other MSs to provide analysis of water samples and send experts.
The use of nuclear and complementary analytical
techniques to assess and compare air pollution levels in the region and build an
accurate database is an important RCA activity. This needs the enhancement and
harmonisation of the knowledge base in MSs on the use of various analytical
techniques such as NAA, XRF and PIXE. MSs have been taught statistical methods
and analytical techniques to help them analyze their collected air samples. They
are also involving and working closely with end-users.
The RCA participated in the interregional activity
involving AFRA and ARCAL to develop a safety guide on radiotheraphy. The guide
will eventually become an Agency TECDOC and made available to all MSs as a
reference.
Links with other regional organisations were
initiated/established in the field of environment and natural resources, e.g.,
with APDIP on electronic networking, whereby the RCA homepage server will be
situated in their facilities; with GEF/IMO/UNDP Regional Seas Programme on
marine coastal environment and its pollution, on radioactivity determination of
seas; and others are being initiated.