NUCLEAR TECHNIQUE CAN ALSO BE USED FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

NUCLEAR TECHNIQUE CAN ALSO BE USED FOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

When we hear nuclear, often our minds think of Bombs! Apart from providing electricity needed to drive the world nations and especially the developing countries into greater growth and development, nuclear energy can be channelled into other economic areas which include agriculture, health, water technology and environment and also for industrial used.

In Agriculture, food security remains one of the most major constraints of development initiatives facing the world today. Boosting agricultural production requires enhanced crop varieties, effective pest and disease control, increased soil fertility, better soil and water management and improved food quality and safety.  One approach is through Mutation breeding that refers to the development of plant strains using mutagens including the irradiation of seeds. Through this procedure the natural process of evolution of the plants DNA is speeded up. Radiation-based techniques are applied to develop new crop varieties chosen with characteristics tailored to a particular environment such as grain with higher yield, better nutritional value, and tolerance to salty soil or resistance to a specific disease. For example in Kenya’s dry lands once unfit for agriculture have been transformed by cultivation of a new wheat variety developed by KARI  known called Njoro-BW1. This variety is bred to be tolerant to drought and use limited rainfall efficiently. The developed variety also shows moderate susceptibility to wheat rust and has high yields.  

In Livestock Development, nuclear energy has been applied in diagnosis of diseases in animals. IAEA is involved in validation of kits to measure antibodies against non- structural proteins of foot and mouth virus. These tests help distinguish between infected and vaccinated livestock and are of utmost importance in assessing countries as free from foot and mouth disease which has huge implications on livestock trade between borders. In the fight against insects and other livestock pests, sterile insect technique has been used in many parts of the world such as the Mediterranean fruit fly in Chile, screwworms which have been successfully eradicated in Libya and also fruit flies – this could be handy in our horticultural sector. The technique is a form of biological pest control and is an alternative to pesticides which have a serious impact on human health and environment. A classical example is the tsetse flies eradication in Zanzibar, subsequently allowing the introduction of cross breed cattle with a higher milk yield. The fact that the sterile insect technique can also be employed in the eradication of Anopheles mosquitoes which are a great menace in the African continent is great news for us. It is estimated that an African child under the age of five years dies every 60 seconds from malaria, making the disease one of the major diseases causing child mortality in the continent.

Inherent low soil fertility and its continuous depletion under traditional cropping and other poor land uses are one of the fundamental causes of declining food production in world agriculture.

Isotopic and nuclear techniques play an important role in identifying the source of pollutants from different land use practices and farming activities. Equally, nuclear techniques are ideal for measuring and monitoring irrigation water uptake by plants and losses through evaporation or deep drainage

In Medical field, Nuclear medicine uses radiation to provide diagnostic information about the functioning of a person’s organ or to treat them. Radiotherapy has been used to treat some medical conditions especially cancer where radiation is used to weaken or to destroy cancerous cells in the body. The thyroid, bones, heart, liver among other organs can now be easily imaged and disorders in their function revealed. For example an isotope of the element Radium, Ra-226 has been used in cancer therapy and Iodine -131 has been used to treat thyroid cancer. Based on this knowledge various radioisotopes have been attached to biologically active substance s and inserted in the body to help diagnose or even treat ailments in those organs in what is known as diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals. Radiopharmaceutical as a medical tool has helped in the early detection of diseases and ailments and together with awareness of early signs and symptoms has increased the probability of cure. We need to address these issues as we plan to realise the VISION 2030, we need a healthy nation to run the agenda.

        

Water plays a major role in agriculture and the overall wellbeing of animal and human populations. Strategies to effectively utilize the available water resources and rainwater should therefore be employed in an effort to achieve water security.  Isotope and related nuclear techniques are effective and unique tools for obtaining hydrologic information for a wide range of water resource management issues.  Isotope hydrology allows the identification of water characteristics; thereby helping to determine its source, pathway and rate of recharge which are very useful to help manage the scarce water resources. Presently, over eighty water projects deal with trans boundary aquifers, groundwater and surface water resources in Africa; Morocco, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Latin America. The use of isotope methods in determining recharge, leakage and evaporation from and into water harvesting systems, contributes to the protection of people from floods hazards and drought especially those in conflict-prone, arid and semiarid areas by providing them water security with harvested water for agriculture and domestic use. Are these not challenges that we need daily, affecting thousands of Kenyans? Can we use the nuclear technique to address them?

                                                                       

Environmental activities which focus on the sustainable use and management of natural resources and on using nuclear technologies to understand and protect marine and terrestrial environments can also be undertaken. With the assistance from IAEA, Scientists in the relevant fields are trained and expertise between them shared. Environmental pollutants can be monitored, changes in their quantities measured as a way to mitigate damages to the environment.  For example already we have a project up and running where Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute are involved as assistance from IAEA to help in the management of the coastal zones of Kenya.

We pose and ask; can we use nuclear and isotopic techniques to address the issues of food security, water, environmental challenges, new emerging health and diseases issue facing the world and especially the developing nations of the world like ours? Yes we can!

Prof Abdulrazak is the Executive Secretary, National Council for Science and Technology. sabdulrazak@yahoo.com