Nuclear power and technology transfer

For the majority of developing countries, nuclear power is yet to become a practical means of producing heat and electricity. Most of the IAEA's technical assistance to them, therefore, has consisted of the transfer of radioisotope-related nuclear science techniques. These are playing a valuable role in treating diseases, eradicating pests, augmenting agricultural production, improving the quality of food, assessing and managing water resources and increasing the efficiency of industrial products. There is hardly any field of human endeavour to which nuclear science does not have an application. Such techniques may be usefully integrated into national agricultural, water resource, health and medical, and industrial research programmes. In helping to create cadres of scientists, technicians and administrators familiar with the economic use of nuclear science and able to handle radiation safely, their application in these areas can be seen as a first step towards the eventual use of nuclear power. This is even more important for the thirty developing countries that are already operating research reactors. There is a distinction, therefore, between the transfer of nuclear power technology, at present to a dozen developing countries, and that of nuclear science techniques which have useful applications in almost all of the other developing countries, more than 120 in number