Director General Yukiya Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who died last week, has visited the Philippines several times when he checked the country’s advances on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy as he commended the country in its extensive applications of nuclear technology in various fields.
Amano, a Japanese diplomat who led the IAEA for a decade and was extensively involved in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the cleanup of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, has died at 72, the agency announced last week, The Associated Press said.
The latest of Amano’s visits to the Philippines was from February 7 to 10, 2018, when he witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the partnership between the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (DOST-PNRI).
The MOU was for the implementation of the IAEA Regional Technical Cooperation Project RAS0079 on Educating Secondary Students and Science Teachers on Nuclear Science and Technology, the PNRI said.
Seen as another milestone in the history of Atoms for Peace and Development in the country, the MOU was signed by Science Secretary Fortunato de la Peña and Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones, who was represented by DepEd Undersecretary Tonisito Umali. Amano witnessed the signing of the MOU.
The Philippines has been a very active member of the IAEA since it was established in 1958 in Vienna, Amano said. The IAEA has various technical cooperation projects which were completed or are currently ongoing in the Philippines.
PHL as host country of IAEA education project
With the MOU, the Philippines is privileged to be the designated as host country for the new IAEA education project.
The objective of the project is to help increase the interest of students in the Asia-Pacific region on science and technology in general, eventually leading to future careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
It also seeks to provide a more accurate perspective of nuclear concepts among secondary-school students, and a better understanding of nuclear and radiation applications in their daily lives, the DOST-PNRI said.
“I am confident that this project will lead to an increase in the number of bright young people who will take up their studies in the nuclear field in the coming years. They will then be well-placed to contribute to the health, well-being and prosperity of their countries” Amano said, as he lauded the potential of students across the Asia-Pacific region to contribute to the regional development.
The four-year project will facilitate the training of secondary science teachers and students on nuclear S&T throughout the IAEA member-states through scientific visits, hosting of expert missions, and the conduct of regional and national seminars and workshops. Educational and learning resource materials on nuclear science will also be developed in various formats.
Along with Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines previously participated as a pilot country in an earlier IAEA outreach project which introduced nuclear S&T in the region’s secondary schools.
The project was the result of the pilot education outreach project that started a few years back. Amano visited the Philippines in January 2015, where he interacted with the students, teachers and officials of Quezon City Science High School and San Francisco High School.
The two schools are the pilot schools in the IAEA outreach program aimed to encourage high-school students to engage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses and careers, particularly on nuclear science and technology.
Commended the Philippines
At the end of his one-and-a-half-day visit to the country on January 27 and 28, 2015, Amano commended the Philippines for its extensive applications and projects of nuclear technology in various fields, as well as its cooperation with other IAEA member-states.
“Your country is not only using these technologies for your purpose, but you are also helping other countries in sharing technology, in your region and beyond; this is very important, and I thank you for your cooperation,” Amano said in a statement delivered at the DOST-PNRI.
The IAEA chief’s visit to the Philippines was part of his tour of the IAEA member-states of Southeast Asia, that included Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.
He emphasized the ever-increasing role of the IAEA and nuclear applications in the development of countries around the globe.
“In a sense, for me, the IAEA is not only ‘Atoms for Peace’ but ‘Atoms for Peace and Development,’ and this objective needs to be carried out by all the members of the IAEA,” he said.
Addressing questions from journalists regarding the future of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), he said that “it is your country, your people, who decide whether nuclear power is good for your country or not.”
“The role of the IAEA is to help them [countries] when they decide to use nuclear power. What we do is to help them to use nuclear power safely, securely and sustainably,” he said.
IAEA-assisted facilities
In his January 2015 visit, Amano toured the latest facilities of the PNRI-DOST which received assistance from the IAEA—including the new Electron Beam Facility for more advanced irradiation applications, the Technetium-99m Generator Facility for the production of radiopharmaceuticals and the Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry Laboratory which will make isotope analytical services cheaper and more accessible to researchers.
He also visited the Centralized Medical Cyclotron Facility at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. It is the second cyclotron to be established in the country that will help make PET radiopharmaceuticals more available in nuclear medicine centers throughout the country.
Nuke congress keynote speaker
In December 2015, Amano keynoted the Third Philippine Nuclear Congress in Manila, where he cited that despite the nuclear-plant accident in Japan in 2011 that has led to the closure of all nuclear plants in that country, more than 400 nuclear power plants are still operational in 30 countries and more than 60 new reactors are being built.
He added that nuclear power could contribute to the mitigation of climate change because nuclear power “does not emit climate-change gas” because it emits minimum carbon.
It is one of the lowest emitters of carbon dioxide, when emissions through the entire life cycle are considered, he said.
“It contributes to the mitigation of climate change,” he told the congress, which has the theme “Meeting Challenges through Nuclear Science and Technology for Sustainable Growth.”
“Despite the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, many countries believe nuclear power can help them to achieve the twin goals of increasing electricity supply while curbing greenhouse-gas emissions,” Amano said in a BusinessMirror news report.
He added that many countries use nuclear power in their energy mix because it can provide the steady supply of baseload electricity needed to power a modern economy.
Lessons learned; nuke power much safer now
He said safety is the key to the future development of nuclear power. The safety record of the nuclear industry “is actually very good.”
“But the Fukushima Daiichi accident was a painful reminder that a terrible accident can happen anywhere, even in a developed industrial country,” he said.
He, however, added that “necessary lessons have been learned” that “extensive improvements in safety have been put in place all over the world.”
He said that nuclear power “is much safer [now] than it was before the accident,” although “nuclear safety will always be a work in progress.”
Technologically, this is an “exciting time for nuclear power” because remarkable research is being done on new generations of reactors, which will be safer and generate less waste, he explained.
“I am confident that technological developments already in the pipeline will make nuclear power not just safer, but much more efficient. I look forward to the development of new nuclear technologies which can generate electricity at competitive prices, with reduced construction times and operating costs,” Amano said in the BusinessMirror story.
Nuclear power forum
Just over a year after he was elected as head of IAEA, Amano visited the Philippines when he spoke at the opening session of the Nuclear Power Forum organized by Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics and Arc Media Global in Manila on December 10, 2010.
He said the IAEA has “provided assistance in strengthening the Philippines’s capabilities in nuclear science and technology, and energy planning,” as well as “advice on developing a Human Resource Development Plan for Nuclear Energy.”
At the forum, Amano said the Philippines “plays an important role at the global level, for example, by chairing the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.”
The Philippines assumed presidency of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May 2010, which discussed the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, nonproliferation and disarmament of nations developing nuclear weapons.
Amano also visited the BNPP on December 11, 2010. At that time, Philippine government officials said the IAEA can assess the possible rehabilitation of the plant, which agency has been doing.
Image credits: PNRI photo