By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Four technicians of the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA) have been each awarded a two-month fellowship in the field of government and regulatory infrastructure for radiation safety in east and southern Africa.
The fellowship, which is expected to commence Monday, 10th January 2022, was awarded by the Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The award is part of a Technical Corporation (TC) Project, LIR 9001, which seeks to establish a regulatory infrastructure for the control and management of radiation sources in Liberia.
Technicians Oliver Vaye (MEng. Environmnetal Engineering) and G. Lenn Gomah (MPhil. Environmental Chemistry) will be hosted at the Radiation Protection Authority in Harare, Zimbabwe while Steward Borbor (MSt. Applied Environmental Geoscience) and Joseph F. Charles (MSc. Environmnetal Management) will be hosted at the Tanzania Atomic Energy Agency in Arusha, Tanzania.
They have arrived in Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
The fellowship is one of several capacity building initiative under the IAEA TC Project LIR 9001, which is coordinated by Rafael Sarji Ngumbu of the EPA with administrative support from N. Yaba Freeman-Thompson (Assistant Minister/National Liaison-Officer-Internal Organizations) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In September 2021, the EPA, with technical support from the IAEA, conducted a ten-day national training course in Radiation Protection and Safety.
RAIS promotes a consistent and common approach to the regulatory control of radiation sources in accordance with international standards and guidance, while offering flexibility to respond to specific needs of the countries, with due account of their national legislative framework, administrative structure and institutional and regulatory framework.