[en] The Government of Cameroon, on behalf of which I am speaking, wishes to express its appreciation and gratitude to the People's Republic of China for agreeing to host this conference, and the International Atomic Energy Agency for taking the initiative to organize it. On behalf of my delegation, I welcome the presence of all other delegates at this international forum for exchanging experience and sharing knowledge. The topic of this conference invites us to reflect upon the problem of nuclear power generation to meet sustainably the socio-economic development demands of our respective countries. This concern is multidimensional and affects us all. It must be noted, however, that energy resources in the world are unequally distributed. This is the place to say that certain countries have hardly any, while others have a considerable potential that is not exploited owing to the weakness of their economy. We know that sustainable energy development is dependent on several factors, in particular availability of resources, mastery of technology and security of facilities. These are the major challenges that humanity will have to face over the coming decades. Cameroon's hydroelectric potential is estimated at 55.2 GW, 19.7 GW of which is technically exploitable. However, the level of access to electricity is only 15%. Consequently, Cameroon attaches great importance to the diversification of technical measures to increase the quality and quantity of national electricity supply. Thus, new projects under way will allow, in the medium and long term, an additional 1600 MW of capacity to be installed in total - 1400 MW from hydroelectric power and 200 MW from thermal power. To respond to the energy challenge to its development, Cameroon plans to develop all its resources, and in particular to exploit its uranium deposits. Despite the energy potential mentioned previously, disturbances caused by climate change affect the reliability of Cameroon's hydroelectricity supplies. That is why, from the point of view of sustainable energy development, the acquisition of nuclear power technology has taken on great importance for the Cameroon Government. It should not be forgotten, however, that badly managed nuclear technology can pose a threat to international peace and security. My country is therefore resolutely committed to general and complete disarmament, under strict and effective international control. For this reason, Cameroon has signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the NPT, a comprehensive safeguards agreement and additional protocol, the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency. In addition, as the home to an international atmospheric radionuclide measurement station, Cameroon is participating in the implementation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Cameroon's recent ratification of the Pelindaba Treaty illustrates my country's desire to contribute to making Africa a nuclear-weapon-free zone. I would also like to use the opportunity offered by this forum to emphasize that Cameroon has responded very favourably to the proposal of the International Atomic Energy Agency to review the additional agreements relating to small quantities of nuclear material. The implementation of this safeguards instrument will facilitate better monitoring of movements of radioactive substances and sources everywhere in the world. A country's adherence to the international legal instruments relating to the use of nuclear energy imposes the need at national level for an operational organization in legal and institutional terms to ensure their application and monitoring. By establishing a National Radiation Protection Agency, Cameroon has provided strong evidence of its commitment to the safe and secure use of nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes. Through this public body, my country intends to play an active part, under the aegis of the IAEA, in the international promotion of cooperation to strengthen radiological safety and security regimes. Aware of the dangers caused by uncertainties regarding the handling and use of nuclear material, Cameroon hopes nevertheless that the international community will support all efforts to give all countries access to nuclear power technology. This means of electricity generation is seen increasingly as a clean energy alternative that also helps mitigate climate change. This conference gives us the opportunity to examine together the conditions for joint development of nuclear power. The event participants can consider matters related to the mobilization of human resources, access to technology, development of reactors of a size compatible with the needs of developing countries, mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle and radioactive waste management. Finally, Cameroon hopes that the international community will guarantee to countries with exploitable uranium deposits the maximum benefits from this resource to support their sustainable development and contribute to the greater happiness of their people. I wish this conference every success. Thank you for your attention.

[en] Increasing agricultural production and improving the quality of milk and meat are key to combating poverty and increasing food security in Africa. Countries such as Cameroon are increasingly turning to innovative, nuclear and nuclear-derived techniques to control and prevent diseases among livestock, and boost cattle and milk production.

[en] Full text: Milk production in Cameroon was estimated at 184 000 tons. Yet the demand of milk products is far above production and 24% of national consumption is imported. Due to urbanization and population growth, milk production needs to double by the year 2020 if it is to meet the demand. Therefore, efforts have been made to increase dairy production. However the efforts of non-governmental organizations, research and government institutions failed to significantly boost domestic dairy production because farmers did not see the economic gain associated with potential biological improvements. A hypothesis was then devised whereby an integration of interventions at the level of farmers associating nutrition, health, reproduction and management would bring more economic benefits to smallholder farmers and improve dairy production. This involved reviewing dairy research done in Cameroon, carrying out a participatory rural appraisal and an economic opportunity survey at selected dairy farms, setting up various interventions on farms, investigating postpartum return to oestrus, evaluating milk quality and the impact of integrated interventions. This paper intends to critically evaluate the results of different studies and present the integrated method developed in this research. It also aims to set up guidelines for a successful sustainable improvement of dairy production in Cameroon. The study involved reviewing dairy research done in Cameroon. A participatory rural appraisal and an economic opportunity survey were carried out in selected dairy farms. On-farm interventions were set up, investigating cow reproduction, evaluating milk quality, setting up an artificial insemination centre and the impact of integrated interventions. Guidelines for improvement of the dairy sector were drawn. These series of experiments were designed to evaluate the impact of interventions carried out holistically. In small-scale dairy systems the uptake and use of research results by wider communities of farmers, organization and livestock extension services has often been less than expected. This in turn resulted in interventions for supplementary feeding, or for improving reproductive performance that did not demonstrate an economic benefit to the farmers. One of the reasons is that they focused only on one constraint or one discipline at a time, and other concurrent production problems were limiting the economic benefits. This study has developed an integrated method in improving dairy production in Cameroon and has found that marketing and milk production per cow per day were the most limiting factors of dairy improvement. Interventions were carried out to solve these constraints and others. Farmers adopting interventions had returns of 193% and 232% with or without opportunity costs proving the positive impact of interventions using the integrated method. The integrated method in solving these constraints will bring much improvement and clear economic benefits to smallholder farmers, proving its effectiveness in ensuring improvement of dairy systems in Cameroon. These interventions need to be spread to more farms in the country. This method needs to be adopted for further dairy production improvement by the creation of multidisciplinary intervention teams and the training of integrated intervention specialists in the dairy sector. The application of integrated interventions in dairying requires the synergistic action from the government, researchers, non-governmental organizations and farmers. It requires expertise from many different fields and calls for the need to create integrated action teems in each administrative region. Each team will be multidisciplinary constituted of an extension agent, an animal nutritionist, a veterinarian, a socio-economist, a dairy technologist and a reproduction scientist. It is quite likely that there be a lack of such specialists in each subdivision. In which case there can be a creation of intervention teams covering special areas of the country. It is not that these intervention teams will replace the private sector but they will guide local authorities in the extension of research results and in actions needed for regulation, advice and support the private sector. (author)

[en] Increasing agricultural production and improving the quality of milk and meat are key to combating poverty and increasing food security in Africa. Countries such as Cameroon are increasingly turning to innovative, nuclear and nuclear-derived techniques to control and prevent diseases among livestock, and boost cattle and milk production.

[en] The restoring of technical, economic and financial performances of electric utilities aroused institutional reforms in a number of African countries. The various types of reforms adopted (management delegation, operations contracting, self-production, etc.) should react as soon as possible upon the serious problems these utilities encountered since several years. However, in the longer term, these reforms will have to be completed in order to set up new forms of sectorial regulation which could ensure the future expansion of the power sector. (author). 5 refs

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[en] The Kitongo U occurrence in northern Cameroon near Poli is hosted by the tectonic contact between the Proterozoic Poli Series and the post-tectonic Kitongo Granite. Recent investigations have shown that the U occurence belongs to the albitite type. Na metasomatic processes are believed to comprise three phases: a large-scale metasomatic event is followed by two structurally controlled metasomatic phases, the so-called 'late-albitite' phases. The first albitization is characterized by zones of distinct geochemical and mineralogical composition. The K₂O content of the rock decreases towards the center of the metasomatically altered rock column to almost nil whereas Na₂O increases up to 12 wt.%. Typical mineralogical changes in the granite are the disappearance of quartz, the formation of three different generations of albite and the transformation of common hornblende to arfvedsonite riebeckite and finally the formation of aegirine. It is unknown whether the ineer zone of this albitization phase (the uraninite-albitite zone), the productive zone in the albitie orebodies in the U.S.S.R. is developed at Kitongo. The development of the second and third albitization phase ('late albitites') is restricted to open fractures, zones of cataclasis or mylonitization. Again, three different generations of albite occur, riebeckite and aegirine are common, and the U mineralization of the late-albitite phases is usually associated with calcite and the reappearance of quartz as vein-fillings. (author). 34 refs.; 6 figs.; 2 tabs

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[en] Published in summary form only

No abstract available