Four technicians of the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia (EPA) have each been 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. Environmental 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. Environmental Management) will be hosted at the Tanzania Atomic Energy Agency in Arusha, Tanzania.
They have already arrived in Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
The fellowship is one of several capacity building initiatives 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.
The course, which brought together over 25 technicians from the EPA, MME, NPHIL, MOH, UL and LISGIS, provided the necessary basic tools for the participants to become trainers in radiation protection and in the safe use of radiation sources in Liberia.
The course, which was taught by Radiation Protection Professors from Ghana and Kenya, also provided theoretical and practical training in the multidisciplinary scientific and/or technical basis of international recommendations and standards on radiation protection and their implementation.
In December 2021, the EPA, with technical support from the IAEA, hosted a five-day training on the use of Regulatory Authority Information System (RAIS).
The RAIS is a software developed by the IAEA to assist countries in managing their regulatory control program in accordance with international standards and guidance including the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources and supplementary Guidance.
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.
The RAIS training was facilitated by an Expert from Tunisia.
These capacity building initiatives are part of the EPA’s effort to adequately support its newly established Environmental Research and Radiation Safety Unit in the Department of Compliance and Enforcement.
It is envisioned that the unit will transition into a fully functional department and, with future legal framework the department could become an Atomic Energy Authority in Liberia.
However, during their departure, the four EPA technicians in an interview at the Robert International Airport (RIA) extended gratitude to the Executive Director of the EPA, Prof. Wilson K. Tarpeh and his deputy Randall M. Dobayou II for affording them the opportunity to acquire knowledge in the field of Radiation Infrastructure Development.