UAE to work on nuclear safety with leading international organisation

Data swapping will aid the UAE as well as the agency, which is working with the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology and Khalifa University.

ABU DHABI // The UAE is starting in-depth work with a major organisation in Vienna to improve its nuclear safety and security.

Dr Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), whose goal is to prevent nuclear testing, visited the UAE this week to increase its work with the UAE.

“There is a lot the UAE can do with the CTBTO,” Dr Zerbo said. “For example, the use of technology that we develop for scientific applications. I visited the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology and Khalifa University to talk to nuclear engineers to see how we could work together and look at the bigger picture - not just focusing on the development of nuclear energy - but also the security and safety aspect and the non-proliferation context as well.”

He said the organisation could participate and contribute to the UAE’s search to develop meteorological, seismic, dust and radiation monitoring.

“If you take the example of Fukushima in Japan, the technology we developed as part of the CTBTO and the seismic and acoustic verification regime helped Japan at the time and the consequences of a tsunami or earthquake,” he said. “Both tools were able to detect this and send information to tsunami centres because we’re one of the most reliable networks. We were the first to show that we detected the explosion through infrasound technology.”

Dr Zerbo said the UAE was able to monitor such phenomenons locally and regionally.

“But by accessing [our] network, you’re getting the global picture,” he said. “We were the only institution to show the international community that it took two weeks for the radiation to move from Japan to the rest of the world but, luckily, there was no health consequence. We could simulate it, though, and inform the population more specifically of these issues.”

Dr Zerbo met with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Foreign Minister, to discuss how the Emirates could help the organisation play its role in the national and regional context.

“One should face the reality that the role the UAE has shown in adhering to all standards and treaties in nuclear safety and security is a good example we can show the rest of the world,” he said. “We want to materialise our work with the UAE and it’s a matter of days now to connect the meteorological centre here with the one in Vienna to gather the wealth of information we have.”

He said the work would also involve training. “We will get educational workshops in nuclear monitoring,” he said. “We invited [nuclear engineers] from Khalifa University to join the science and technology conference which takes place in June next year and happens every two years. It will connect them with 800 experts worldwide dealing with nuclear technology and monitoring.”

Ambassador Hamad Alkaabi, the UAE permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the organisation had developed a tremendous technological base that allowed it to detect and monitor nuclear tests.

“The same network can be used for other applications like civil, monitoring earthquakes and seismic movements,” he said. “So what we’re trying to establish is more cooperation in terms of getting the UAE to access this data network but, at the same time, to tap into some potential capacity-building for training in specialised fields in science and technology in detection and verification.”