The IAEA’s Vienna headquarters provided the venue for lively debate and discussions between representatives of the 29 Member States engaged in a new, interregional project which seeks to ensure that all radioactive sources remain within effective and permanent regulatory controls—from the weak industrial sources used in smoke detectors to highly-enriched cobalt-60 deployed in radiotherapy clinics. From 18-22 July, 36 project counterparts from across the planet rallied in Vienna to participate in the first coordination meeting of the new project, and to take stock of their progress in implementing, and subsequently sustaining, their ‘cradle-to-grave’ management of radioactive sources.
Soumia Zeroual, a radioactive waste management specialist working at Morocco's National Centre for Radioprotection, discussed the role her country played in this ongoing, interregional project.