Experts review Cameroon’s radiation protection agency activities

Nine experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, are reportedly conducting a comprehensive review of the regulatory activities of the National Radiation Protection Agency, NRPA, in Cameroon.

The delegation, led by Lund Ingemar, arrived in Yaounde on October 12 and was officially received in the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation on October 13, during an opening ceremony of their mission, chaired by the Inspector General, Roger Noel Iroume.

According to the specialists, adequate infrastructure for radiation protection and radiological safety is essential for any country using nuclear technologies in areas such as agriculture, medicine, industry and research.

In order to match safety standards, promote and maintain the regulatory radiation protection infrastructure in an effective and sustained manner, IAEA established a number of tools to assess the level of progress of regulatory mechanisms.

The Integrated Regulatory Review Service, IRRS, is one of the tools for the external evaluation of the regulatory activities of the radiation protection infrastructures. The objective of this visiting IRRS mission in Cameroon is to conduct comprehensive and complete review of the NRPA regulatory activities in accordance with the IAEA fundamental principles and safety standards.

“Cameroon has identified two main topics to be discussed during round tables. “We shall provide recommendations on good practices and suggestions to improve Cameroon’s regulatory framework,” said the Coordinator of the Mission, Teodros Hailu.

According to the Director of NRPA, Dr. Augustin Simo, the mission is also expected to strengthen his agency’s credibility at both national and international levels.

The mission will last 10 days and will include interviews with heads of technical services of the NRPA, audiences with Government authorities and site visits to the Medical Imaging Department of the Yaounde Central Hospital; Radiotherapy Department of the Douala General Hospital; Nuclear Medicine Department of the General Hospital in Yaounde and the Industrial Radiography Service of HYDRAC.

The first IRRS mission to Cameroon was in November 2007, shortly after the NRPA went operational in April of that year.