FDA Grants The PNRI License To Operate Technetium 99m Facility. PNRI Newsletter, Vol. 3

Midyear is a great time for self-assessment and reflection, to ask ourselves where we have been and where we intend to go. We are proud to say that PNRI is still well on its way in meeting its targets and in making nuclear science and technology more relevant to our partner agencies, our clients and customers, and most especially the general public. The Food and Drug Administration has given PNRI the license to operate the Technetium 99m Facility. This will be a great boon to the medical industry as it will save expenses for importing radiopharmaceuticals used for diagnostic imaging procedures throughout the country. Also, the quarantine treatment PNRI has developed for the mango pulp weevil pest is well on its way to being officially approved by the United States Department of Agriculture, which will hopefully allow more of our country's mango exports to enter the US. On a lighter note, high school science teachers and a college faculty graduated from the month-long 38th Seminar on Nuclear Science for High School Science Teachers and the 47th Course on Nuclear Technology for University/College Faculty conducted by the PNRI's Nuclear Training Center. It is our hope that the participants will help us enhance public awareness and advance scientific knowledge from the research institute to the classroom. Speaking of public awareness, these teachers also joined us along with our friends from the media and PNRI staff in a one-day visit to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in May. We had the privilege of being guided inside the plant by our friends from the National Power Corporation and former Congressman Mark Cojuangco. In the field of regulations, the US Department of Energy continues its partnership with PNRI in developing and improving the Philippines' safety and security of radioactive materials as well as its capabilities in emergency preparedness and response to nuclear and radiological emergencies. These and more have been accomplished by the Institute this second quarter, and we hope to be able to continue the Institute's mandate as the next half of 2014 begins.