IAEA Supports Upgrade and Use of a CERD Accelerator in Nigeria

The follow-up project , launched in 2011 with funding from the US delivered through the Peaceful Uses Initiative mechanism, aimed to further develop expertise and capacities in the use of the newly-acquired ion beam line, with the ultimate goal of enhancing support to national economic development programmes by building confidence in CERD’s analytical services. Three new expert missions were conducted, and an additional CERD staff member was invited to participate in a four-month IAEA fellowship.

Today, the Ilé-Ifẹ̀ accelerator is installed and fully functional, and boasts a team of specialized staff to oversee and manage its use. Already, the CERD accelerator has led to the publication of a number of scientific papers and studies, and has attracted the attention of three PhD candidates, four Masters students, and a host of undergraduates, all of whom have leveraged the analytical power of the ion beam accelerator in support of their theses.

The presence of the new accelerator has drawn members of disparate scientific communities together, all attracted by its myriad applications. Already, the accelerator project has triggered collaborations between CERD staff and the Obafemi Awolowo University, whose specialized staff at the University Natural History Museum and Faculty of Health Sciences have participated in workshops on the use of the accelerator for sample analysis.

In installing its new ion beam accelerator (IBA), Nigeria has joined a global community of IBA practitioners. It also joins three other IAEA Member States in the African region which already have accelerator facilities, namely Algeria, Egypt and South Africa. More importantly, however, this IBA project will help Nigeria reach a number of economic and social milestones, particularly in the areas of graduate-level education, industrial applications, and scientific research in the physical, chemical, materials and biological sciences.

By helping to establish and improve access to high quality, state-of-the-art research techniques, and by helping to foster a collaborative, highly-trained community of national and international experts, this IAEA TC project has opened new avenues, through which Nigeria’s scientific community can interact with and benefit from nuclear science and its applications.