OK, we might make a start now. It's my great privilege to
do the acknowledgment today, acknowledgment of
country, and we are greeting our visitor today
on the Ngunnawal and Ngambri lands. And as you survey the
scenery behind our speaker, have a think about
the 30,000 years that they have
looked after the land and how, as a shared
contribution to that land, we might all do that together. At that point, I'd like
to introduce our president and vice chancellor of
the Australian National University, Brian Schmidt. Thank you, Tim, and
welcome everyone. I'm glad to see
that we're taking the undergraduate
approach, which is to spread out across the
entirety of the auditorium. Anyway, so Tim, thank you for
your acknowledgment to country, and I, too, pay my respects
to elders past and present of the Ngunnawal,
Ngambri people. So it is a great pleasure today
to welcome Deputy Director General Najat Mokhtar
this afternoon to the Australian
National University and to host the IAEA once again. Of course, this year is
not like other years. There is a new
focus on, I guess, atomic energy and its
regulation in this country due to decisions of the
Australian federal government. Dr. Mokhtar was trained in
food and health sciences, holds degrees from Laval
University in Canada and the University
of Dijon in France, so I think you're
a double doctor. Yes, a real glutton
for punishment. She went on to be a Fulbright
fellow at Johns Hopkins and then held several senior
positions within Morocco. For the past decade Dr.
Mokhtar has worked at the IAEA, being section head in the
human health division, then division director
for Asia and the Pacific in the Department of
Technical Cooperation being appointed to her
present role in January 2019. She has enormous experience in
the benefits of nuclear science and what it can
bring for humanity. And today, Najat
will address how nuclear science can help
address global challenges, and I think this
is going to be one of the important
things for us here in Australia to get
our heads around is that we need to
have a program here that goes beyond just a
very small specific thing to do with nuclear
submarines but rather one that brings all the good
things it can into society. It is a very broad
and important topic and one that I
think universities need to make sure we get
behind and do the best to promote a whole of
society set of activities. And I think in this sense, ANU
has a special role in Australia in this regard, and I see
a very diverse audience, from medical science,
to plant sciences, to physicists, of
course, mathematicians, so a whole range of
people here today. And I guess it will
be very exciting, as I said, to get your perspectives. And for me, I have long promised
to come and visit Vienna, to the agency, and hopefully,
when I'm no longer vice chancellor, I will be able to
go meet my niece and nephew, who live in Vienna and
come and Finally visit. So without further ado,
I'll hand over to yourself. Thank you very much, and-- [APPLAUSE] It's really an honor
for me to be here with you all in Australia and in
Canberra and with the students and with the senior
fellow colleagues. It brings me back
to 20 years ago, I was also a Professor
at University teaching biochemistry and food
science and nutrition. And really happy to see this
beautiful auditorium, very nice. I don't know how much you know
about the IAEA, but I guess-- yeah, this is I
don't know if you have visited the International
Atomic Energy here with our three buildings. My office is in the left one. We have 175 member states. We are 2,500 staff at the
IAEA, but we have other UN organizations also that
we are on the same side, like [INAUDIBLE],, the
Space Agency, and others. Going back to the agency,
this is what you hear always in the news, isn't it, that
nuclear source find in Libya. The head of the
agency watchdog, this is what they call the agency
watchdog is going to Iran. It's going to Russia. It's going to Ukraine. But I think many
of you may be they don't know that the agency has
also an other helmet, which is they use-- peaceful
use of nuclear technology for good and for helping member
states for better well-being-- for health and well-being. Let me just walk you through
a little bit of history of the agency to really
show you that it's all started with peaceful use
of nuclear technology. And sorry, go back to-- this is back in 1953
in New York when the US President Eisenhower-- Eisenhower, yes, I always
have problem with names-- called for a new
organization, new agency, to really tackle
atoms for peace. And if you allow me,
I want just to say a few words, the word of the
President Eisenhower himself. "The more important
responsibility of this Atomic
Energy Agency would be to devise methods whereby
this fissionable material would be allocated to serve the
peaceful pursuit of mankind. Experts would be mobilized
to apply atomic energy to the needs of
agriculture, medicine, and other peaceful activities. A special purpose would be to
provide abundant electricity in the power-starved
area in the world." So it all started with the
call to use atomic energy for peaceful use. And then, here is the first
site of the agency in 1957. if you have been to
Vienna, this is the-- you see? International Atomic
Energy, I think, is-- which hotel was that? The Grand Hotel Grand
Hotel of the city of Vienna where the Office of
the agency was there. And this is the sign-in
between the first agency Mr. Cole, the first DG of
the agency with the Prime Minister of Austria. Again, as you have heard the
President Eisenhower calling for the application
of atoms for peace, this is the first laboratory,
mobile laboratory, back in 1958 donated by the US to start
doing some research in Vienna. And this is [INAUDIBLE] work. If you can see, this is
the palace [INAUDIBLE],, one of the beautiful palaces
in Vienna at the center. So you see just I want to
bring you back that it's all about peaceful use. It's all about using,
harnessing the atoms for peace, harnessing the
atoms for medicine, for food and agriculture. Then, of course, to harness the
atoms, you need to do research. You need labs. You need to develop technology. And this is the
first groundbreaking of the laboratories
that we have in Vienna, Selbersdorf Laboratory. It's 50 kilometers from Vienna. And this is the [? DG ?]
call in the groundbreaking, putting this talking
about first laboratory [INAUDIBLE] a laboratory. This is being like 61 years ago. And of course now, old labs. So we started since 10 years,
refurbishing these labs. Oh, sorry, let me go back here. Those are the first
research in these labs. As you can see here,
this is a scientist trying to study the
response to radioactivity, iodine radioactive
assess, the radioactivity in entire with cancer. And here you see this
portable sensor graphene. We have now laboratory--
and I will show you-- I hope we have photo
of the dosimetry lab in this presentation. And here the greenhouse,
which is still there, by the way, where we were
looking at varieties of rice here being treated by radiation
and looking for new breeding for new varieties of rice. So this is just to
bring you back again, on the type of research--
this is back in 1962-- being done in the labs. Then, again, in New
York, the member states were worried about the level
of radioactivity in oceans. And they have asked, task the
agency to do some measurements and to do some
initiative program to help countries monitoring
radioactivity around the world. And here where Monaco,
principality of Monaco, offered the infrastructure
to host those laboratories, marine laboratories, in Monaco. And the first lab was at
the Oceanography Museum. If you haven't visited,
I strongly recommend. Beautiful museum in Monaco. Back to 1966, and here where
the building you see up there, the building, those
are our laboratories are on the right side. The three levels of the
three laboratories in Monaco tackle in marine environment. And here the Prince honore
de Monaco and our director general, former Director
General ElBaradei in the opening ceremony. I'm not going to go
into details what we do. Maybe if you have questions
on marine environments-- and it will come maybe
in the discussion here. Just here to highlight
that agency and through the director general, we
got the Nobel Peace Prize. I was honored to be among
the staff at that time. And you can see here the name
of all the staff, recognition of the work of the staff,
to the peaceful use at that time in 2005. And the prize, the money got
followed on this occasion. Director General Baradei
and the late Amano DG, they have dedicated of money
to do some research on cancer and on child malnutrition. And at that time,
my background, I was involved in the capacity
building in human nutrition. Again, on the laboratories,
as I have told you, 61 years. And those labs,
they host fellows. We do science. We do research. And it was about time
to renovate them. And it took us 10 years almost. 2023, those now, our
new laboratories. This is the-- I don't know if we have a-- Yes? This is the sterile
insect laboratory where we use radiation
to sterile male insects and release them in the wild
so that they can depress the population of insects. And then we get rid of insect
pests, like the fruit fly, for example. And this is
environmentally-friendly technology where we have been
applying in many countries, particularly in -- America and in US, as well
bringing income generation to many farmers here
and on this-- sorry. Going back. Here we have the agricultural
laboratory, three laboratories. We have joined center
with FAO, where we really apply the technology throughout
the spectrum from soil and water monitoring, plant
breeding, animal health, food safety, and insects
and pest control. So we are almost finishing. In 2024, we are going
to have eight new brand new laboratories. And again, you are
welcome to visit. We host almost 1,500
visits per year. And we host hundreds of fellows
from all over the world. And we do science
there, CRPs, what we call Coordinated
Research Program where we bring institutions from
developed and developing countries to work
on common issues like water, soil,
and plant production, human health, its environmental
monitoring, marine environment. We are working with more than
1,000 institutions worldwide. And let me then give you just
a brief on the application that we are doing. Of course, what we do is
always, because we are dealing with radiation, we make sure
that safety and security is taken care of. And of course, those are
the three main pillars of the work we do
at the agency-- safeguarding, and
verification, making sure that the declaration of nuclear
material at the cancer level is well monitored. Safety and security, making
sure that all the work that we are doing
using nuclear radiation is following the safety
and security guidelines. And of course, the
science and technology, which is in the department
I'm heading right now. The work we do, as
I have mentioned, tackle several goals
from human health to food security,
water security, environmental monitoring, and
marine environment as well. And of course,
all the work we do is linked to the sustainable
development goals. We are directly
involved in nine SDGs, and were indirectly linked
to almost all of the SDGs. Let me just give you some
examples here on water. What we do-- and I think
some of you understood, particularly, we were
working with them-- is really to use stable and
radioisotope to date water, underground water, to
look at the aging as you know, more old is the water, more
hard to refurbish that water. So giving this information
to policymakers, they can have this
data to manage better their underground water. So where is the water? How old is it? How good is it? And how long that
water can stay there. And of course, this is linked
to the cycle of water, surface water, also the precipitation. The agency held the biggest
database on precipitation called Global Network
on Precipitations. So this is very useful
and we are modeling this. We can predict, and you
can tell to the country about the water reserve is in
the coming five or 10 years. This is very useful and we
are building capabilities throughout the
world now, looking at how we can build capacities
network of labs, water labs so that they can--
water knows no borders. So we need to really
communicate among countries. This is about agriculture,
as I told you. We have joint center
with FAO, where we use the technology to
look at varieties of plants, that they are
resistant to diseases. Varieties of plants that they
can grow and saline soil, for example. And this is very
useful, particularly now, we are talking
about climate change. This is global issue. And so far, we have more than
3,000 varieties of plants. You name it, rice,
barley, wheat. And this is very, very useful
also in terms of yield-- and in terms of
resistant to diseases. After that, we, of course,
we look also at the harvest and the nuclear technology
can preserve food. This is food safety aspects. We build technology, we build
laboratories, infrastructure in countries to make
sure that the food is safe from contaminants, but also
from pests through radiation. If you radiate, for
example, an apple, it can stays for more than
one year on your desk. And I have experienced that. And water, the same. So that's an aspect
that you don't need to use any other aspects
to get rid of the pests. We also use irradiation for
I said, for sterile insects. I have mentioned
this before to also which is an environment friendly
technology to get rid of fruit flies, for example. But now, we are using
it also for mosquito, to get rid of the dengue fever,
some aspects of malaria, et cetera. Animal health is a big
program in our laboratories. And we are building
more than 145-- I think 45 animal
laboratories, veterinary, worldwide to really use
the technology [? RTPCR ?] bio-safety cabinets and
radiation to empower vaccines. This is also a new area. And this has been--
this laboratory has been very instrumental
during COVID-19, provided support
to many countries on the detection of COVID. On human health, also is a
big program at the agency. We cover human health from
prevention nutrition program. I have mentioned
this morning that we are building a
database on local food, like [INAUDIBLE] foods where
we look at nutritional value, but we go beyond that. We look at the
absorption in the body. And if the products
or the food, we say, is rich in iron,
how much of that iron is efficient
to really enhance the iron content in the body. Moving also to diagnosis,
nuclear medicine. You go to the dentist
there's x-ray. You do you have all done
CT scan or PET scan. So this is also an area--
we don't build the machine, but we train health
staff on the machine. We make sure that the radiation
is used in proper way. We make sure that the
education modules are-- education documents are also
shared with the universities. And we work together, really,
to use digital learning in this area. Radiotherapy, radiation
medicine, radiotherapy is also a big program. This is in our lab. Remember I showed you the
first laboratory of dosimetry on iodine thyroid
cancer, this is the latest linear
accelerator for radiotherapy. So here, we don't
treat patients, but here, we make sure
that the dose is enough, is not too much, not too little. And we are providing services
to more than 3,000 laboratories worldwide. So they send us the dose. We make sure we collaborate
and we return back and we do a lot of
proficiency testing. This is also a WHO
collaborating center. We have-- this is part
of the dosimetry work that we are doing. This is on human health. I hope I covered it. Of course, this
industrial application is a big topic also. We have a Department of
physics and chemistry. We don't have a big
accelerator at our site, but we collaborate
with other centers, like here, with ANSTO
on using the radiation technology to help
industrial development here, for example, cables. This is in Brazil, where we
worked with them to develop technology, e-beam technology
to strengthen the cable, car cables, for example;
sterilization of medical materials-- syringes, masks, et cetera;
sterilization of food-- you saw this is [INAUDIBLE],,
I think, for, also, to make-- for also safety aspects-- and of course, the
radio-pharmaceutical aspects. Again, here, we
have a big program on radio-pharmaceutical
production. We have a program that we help
countries sit in the facility, making sure that
they are using-- they're producing
radio-pharmaceutical in a safe and secure manner. However, unfortunately,
production of radio-pharmaceutical
or radiation medicine is not widely
distributed in the world. There are few countries
that they have the luxury to have access to radiation
medicine or access to radio-pharmaceutical,
or even access to radiation technology
for industrial application. Still a lot work
to be done ahead. Now moving to
marine environment, or environmental
assessment, in general. We have a lab on
terrestrial environments. And I mentioned, we have
marine laboratories in Monaco. And here, mainly, we help member
states to produce good data. And to do that,
we need standards. And this is what we do. We produce standards. Even we don't have
sea, this is-- whatever we want to
measure in the sea, you need to use to compare it
to the Vienna water standards that we have produced
in our laboratories. The CO2 for Green
houses, green gas houses was produced in our lab,
the standard of CO2. We have hundreds of
standards that we produce. And we produce also with
our collaborating centers to make sure that the
measurements are done properly. We run also proficiency
testing with many labs. Yearly, we have at least
50 proficiency tests in worldwide in many area
to monitor the environment, but to monitor also
marine environment. As I've told you, we have
been doing this for 60 years, but we are not funding agency. We are technical agency. So we do research in our lab. Once the proof of
concept is there, it's been transferred
to the member states for sustainability. Transfer to the member
states, we don't scale. We just teach them how
to use the technology. We train. We set small facility. We help them having,
again, proof of concept. But then it's up to the
country to scale it up because then it needs funding. When our director general, Mr.
Grossi came on board, he said, we need to do something because
we cannot just transfer this technology and see
it sitting there. because usually, we are not
talking to Finance Minister, or to the Minister
of Agriculture or to the Minister of Health. We are talking to
technical institutions, that they need to take this
technology and build it there. So when you have
that hub, it has to be communicated
in the country. But of course, we always
face the stigma of nuclear. We are a nuclear
organization, whatever comes, as soon as you
say the word "nuclear", the people will run away and
they don't want to talk to us, particularly when
you go and say, I can help you in agriculture,
say, well, [? FAO ?] was there, they can help us in
agriculture or on human health. Well, what is the role of WHO? So all these
questions about, what is the role of the
[INAUDIBLE] here, why IAEA is working
on human health, or in agriculture
or our other areas. So we need to find this niche
that we are part of the puzzle. We are not coming to compete
with WHO or with FAO, we are coming to be
part of the solution to bring the solution on
board, technology driven. And this is the message
that we are trying to communicate all the time. The director director-general
said during the COVID-19, for example, he said,
if member states came to IAEA asking for
help to fight COVID-19, it's because they
know IAEA first, they know what we can
do, what we can deliver, because they need
us, they need help. We provided help to more
than 300 laboratories. And after that, our
director general said, this is not the last pandemic. We will have others. It's better be ready. And this is why he launched
an initiative called ZODIAC, Zoonotic Diseases Integrated
Action, which aimed mainly at making sure that
underdeveloped and least developed countries, they have
the necessary infrastructure to be able to go and see
what is out there to analyze, detect viruses, pathogens that
can be of threat to humans. Until this has been launched,
like, two years ago, now we have 128
laboratories worldwide where we are building this capability,
doing training together and sharing the best
practices in a platform that you can-- by the
way-- you can visit. The ZODIAC--
ZODIAC.I.org, so you can have all the
information available. We do also research
here because we want to know what
could be out there in each and every region that
can be of threat to humans. So we go sample soil,
environment, water, to be able to detect
these pathogens. As I mentioned, we have Marine
Environment Program, very rich. Every year, we have visitors. In October, we
have member states. We have the ambassadors
coming to visit the Marine Laboratory in Monaco. We had the honor to have the
ambassador from Australia visit in last year. And here, we look at-- I mentioned the radioactivity in
oceans, with 180 laboratories. But in addition to that,
now we are looking also at climate change, ocean
acidification, the ocean warming and solutions
like blue carbon. How we can measure the blue
carbon, how we can monitor it. And here, is about plastics. All of us, we know that
plastic is a problem worldwide. Microplastic is a
problem worldwide, but how we measure it? How we assess it? What are the data? There are none, nowhere. And as we speak, member states
are discussing of a treaty that they should be signed
to get rid of plastic. How we can monitor that treaty. And this is what our
laboratory in Monaco with other laboratories
including ANSTO. Here in Australia, we are
developing best methods, guidelines how to
measure microplastics, how to monitor it. And also we are looking
at upstream parts, how we can use radiation
technology to recycle plastic, how we can change the
structure of the plastic, recycle it to another
product that can be reused or amalgamate to
another product. I'm sorry, I did
something wrong. Yeah. Just going back to
the plastic part, we are also looking
at how we can use-- produce biodegradable plastic. And this is something that
we are doing with ANSTO, looking at the
biomass, irradiation biomass with some chemicals,
and producing biodegradable plastic. This is a cool part that we
are really looking forward. I mentioned the health
program at the IAEA. And here, again,
our director-general launched an initiative
called Rays of Hope because maybe here in
Australia, everyone has access to radiation
medicine, to diagnosis. But I'm from Morocco,
I'm from Africa. Morocco, maybe we have
some linear accelerators, but 70% of African population,
they don't have access to radiation medicine. So that means because
they are in Africa, their faith is already there. You've got cancer,
you don't have access to radiation medicine,
you don't have money to go to another country,
you are going to die. This is unethical
and unacceptable. And this is what we are
fighting for at the IAEA is to really, that
wherever you live should not decide on how
long you are going to live. And the idea is to team up with
developed countries, to team up with banks, with donors to
build radiation and medicine, to build nuclear
medicine diagnosis, early diagnosis and to build
radiotherapy centers to make sure that each and everyone
have access to radiation. I was saying that one
month ago, I was in Morocco and there is this woman that
lives 700 kilometers far away from the capital. She was diagnosed with
breast cancer one year late. And she has to go for treatment. She has to travel
to the Capitol. And then she was given an
appointment for seven months. She died because
she could not wait. The cancer does not wait. And this is unacceptable. So we have to do
something about it. Now we have countries come in
to be part of this initiative. And we already started with
some countries in Africa. We need everyone, everyone
because the work at hand is really too big
to close the gap, but we have to start somewhere. Water is an issue everywhere. And I heard also Australia,
it's a big issue. And I showed you that we can
use the technology really to manage better
water resources. In Australia,
maybe it's possible because wonderful scientists,
wonderful infrastructure. But in countries like Niger or
Mauritania, Morocco as well, water is a problem. But to manage
water, we need data. And we have been in New York
with Nora, like in March where on the Water Summit,
the UN water. And everybody was saying we
need data to manage water. We cannot just wait for
precipitation and say, OK, well my well, I will have
some water in my well. So we need to build
these capabilities, the science for policies. And this is what
we are doing now, is we are launching a
network of water laboratories that will be able to monitor,
map the water resources and provide this
data to policymakers to manage better for example,
agricultural program. Yeah. We all heard about artificial
intelligence and big data, et cetera. So we cannot talk about
science without talking about artificial intelligence,
without talking about big data. At the agency, we have
almost 20 databases where this is wealth, where
we can do some modeling and we can provide
some information to the member states. So we are-- next week, we
are having a big meeting at the IAEA, where
we're looking at how AI for good, how
artificial intelligence we can use it to really
harness the technology, but to provide support
on all those topics that I have mentioned to you. And of course, to harness
digital artificial intelligence and digital in general,
we cannot work in silos. We need mathematicians, we
need physic specialists, we need medical doctors
to work together to be able to find the solution
to the problem at hand, to the agriculture, et cetera. So this is also a new era where
we really, as scientists, we need to go and
knock at next door to say, hey, what are you
working, what are you doing, and to see how you can help
me and how I can help you with the work I'm doing. And, again, here,
as organization, we cannot work alone. We don't have the unique--
the silver bullet solution. That's why we need to work
with other organizations. I've mentioned to
you that here is-- we are signing with France
PREZODE initiative that also prepare pandemic preparedness. And we are working together
with FAO, with WHO, et cetera, so we need
complementarities with academia, with
industry, with also international organizations. I mentioned that science
cannot be just in our corner, our lab working in science. We need to spread the
word and go out and talk about the work we do. When I go out, it
happened to me that I was talking to a colleague from
UN organization's, just going to see how we can collaborate. And when I told her,
I'm coming from IEA and we use nuclear
technology, she said, I don't want to
talk to you at all because I have nothing
to do with nuclear. So just already, when we hear
we hear the word "nuclear", people, they run away. And this is where we need
to really talk about bring the youth, bring-- to understanding open
mind, open to science because this is the future. Not only nuclear technology,
but science in general. So science and
diplomacy, it's an area that we need also
to develop further. And this is what we are trying
to work on also at the IEA. I think I'm almost there. Thank you very much
and I hope I did not make you sleep after lunch. So thank you and I'd
be open to questions. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] Thank you very
much, Dr. Mokhtar. I might leave you
with that, and I'll-- Thank you very much for
your wonderful talk. I'm curious as to,
it looks like you have a lot of really fascinating
initiatives going on. I'm wondering how we can best
get involved and contribute to some of what
IAEA is working on. Thank you. You can reach out to
us, as I have said, like, for example, on ZODIAC,
we have a website for the cancer initiative. Also we have a website that-- it's there and we
will come anyone who wants to come on board and
contribute either through us-- to spread the word, we need
young women and young men to really be with us. And wherever they go, they
can talk about the work we do. So you can reach out to us. I can give you my business card. Here is-- Nora can
also give you hers. But also reach out to
what is, Cancer For All? The hashtag Cancer for All? Cancer Care For All. OK. So we have, if you go
to the IAEA website, you will find some
information, but feel free to reach out to me and I can
give you more information. Thank you, or thank
you for your interest. I think we have a
question here, right? Thanks so much. And I completely agree
with the previous question, which is the breadth of what you
support is really impressive. But that brings us
with its own challenge, which is, how do
you set priorities for a very busy agency
with limited resources, so many problems to tackle. Do you set them by region? How do you decide, for
example, for the Asia-Pacific, where the agency will
focus its energies and efforts for
the next 12 months or whatever that
period might be? Very good question. We have procedures on research. We set the topic of research. This is agency. Technical, our technical stuff. They set the topic
of research based on the global issues,
like, climate change, we look at what can
nuclear technology can do. Once we call on a
couple of experts, they put the concept together
and we call for proposal from institutions. So any country can participate. You go to on our website, you
will see the call for proposal for research. This is building research
capacity in countries. That's one part. Once the research is set and
we have proof of concepts, then we transfer to
the member states. How member states, they
will come to us, let's say, Nepal will come and say, well
it's not nuclear power country. But they will say,
I want support on water and health and
agricultural, maybe. So we have a document called
Country Program Framework, where countries set
this priorities. And then we work
with the country. So we transfer
the technology, we say, OK, which institution
you want us to work with? We will name our counterpart and
we start training and building this capability. That's the one side. Now on this big
initiative that I have mentioned like
ZODIAC or Rays of Hope, we call countries that they
want to come and participate with us. So they will send us a
formal letter say, OK, I want to be part of NUTEC Plastic. I want to be part of ZODIAC. But then here, we look,
again, at the country. And if they develop
it like Australia, Australia will be partner
in this Initiative. Australia will accompany
us to give services to South East Asia, to small
island states, et cetera. So this is how we
will collaborate. Now on how to
choose, how we choose those topics is,
again, globally, cancer is a big issue. And we have the mandates
of radiation medicine. Zoonotic disease
is still big issue. Each one who can do
whatever they can, the contribution is not enough. Food security, food
safety, et cetera. So this is how we operate. We choose global priorities. There is one there. Thanks so much for
your presentation. My name is Aquil Akbar. I was a researcher and
now gone to the dark side of commercialization. What I am interested
in is how the IAEA partners with companies
to be able to get impact, particularly we're considering
the [INAUDIBLE] detector from CIRO. Is it a similar sort
of thing, and how do we actually then get impact? Yeah. Also very good question. Thank you. We are demand driven
from other member states. We have 170 member states. We serve them
because they pay us. This is where our
money comes from. Now the politics of
the area we are now opening to the private sector. For example, on
Rays of Hope, we are partnering with big producer
of linear accelerators to be able to provide
training, capacity building, and also give us good
price for the market. So that's one way. Another way is, for example,
we are working with companies, fertilizers companies,
where they said, we want to see how our
product is used on the ground by plants so that we are also-- we want to contribute to the
global efforts on climate change. So we do research to also
advise how much fertilizer would be needed in plants. So this is one way. There are other
companies we also-- that they need specific
products to test it in multicenter study. So if they can
contribute funding and it's beneficial to
all our member states, we will partner with
them to do that study. So it depends on the case. But now we are more open to
work with private sector. This question here. Thank you for your
most stimulating talk. Could you comment on
your agency's attitude to modular nuclear reactors? To? Modular nuclear reactors. Yeah. You mean the new era, like
the small, medium, small modular reactors, the SMRs. It's an area where there
is a lot of talk now. And the IAEA is front
line to make sure that the information given to
the member states is accurate. So we are developing now
reports on the studies being done in many
countries to make sure that the information given to
the member states is accurate. We are also working
on regulatory aspects. And we have several
meeting on regulatory, what would be the regulator's
role, also legal aspects. So it's all working in progress. But this is something that
we are in front line looking at how this will evolve. Thank you. Thanks very much. Steve. You commented several times
during your presentation on the stigma that's attached
to the word "nuclear". And that's something
that we're very much used to in this country as well. And the way to approach that
is to construct a narrative around the peaceful uses of
nuclear technology, of course. But could you comment on
the particular strategies that you have at the IAEA
to hopefully overcome some of the stigma? Yeah. We're doing different lines,
having these big initiatives going out like, this
the water initiative, the Rays of Hope initiative
is really bringing, we are not talking to only
research institutions, but we are going
to the top level to really sensitize the
policymakers, finance minister, health minister, to tell
them that we are here and we can help you. So help me to help you. This is what DG always says. So I think if you
look at countries that they are embarking on
nuclear power, the first thing that starts with is nuclear
institution on peaceful use first. So that they can bring the
community around to say, hey, we are here to serve you. So not starting with the
nuclear power, nuclear energy, but starting with water,
agriculture, that's one way. But at the end of
the day, we are talking about atoms
and how to harness the atoms for peaceful use. And this is everywhere. You can't do science without
harnessing the atoms. And I think we need to bring
this down to the atom level, to atoms saves lives. And this is what we do. We are having a ministerial
conference next year, we are bringing ministers of
health, minister of Agriculture from all over the
world to really talk about what has been achieved,
impact, success stories, that's important, cost effectiveness. How much you would invest
in conventional methods and in nuclear methods
and how much time you would gain, how much money. That's language that I think
everyone can understand. Thank you, Steve. And I'll let that be the
last question because I'm sure a few of us
are happy to come and join us for
afternoon tea, but I'd like to thank Dr. Mokhtar
today for your inspiring talk and for all the
wonderful questions. Please join with me. Thanks. [APPLAUSE]
