Cuban agency considers international technical cooperation as effective

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 22 (ACN) The Cuban Agency for Nuclear Energy and Advanced Technologies (AENTA by its Spanish acronym), described as positive the technical cooperation offered to Cuba by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A summary of specialists of that institution, points out in particular the support for new projects and initiatives in radiotherapy, plastic contamination and the confrontation of new pandemics with the ZODIAC project.

It attributes importance to the mobile X-ray equipment to be installed at the Leon Cuervo Rubio Surgical Clinic Hospital in Pinar del Rio; Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Hospital in Granma; Arnaldo Milan Castro Surgical Clinic Hospital in Villa Clara; and Saturnino Lora Surgical Clinic Hospital in Santiago de Cuba.

Each one of them has a cost of 67,500 Euros, although their donations so far this year also stand out, especially after the devastating fire that accidentally broke out at the Supertanker Base in Matanzas last August.

The IAEA's new initiatives include Integrated Measures against Zoonotic Diseases (ZODIAC) to strengthen global preparedness against future pandemics such as COVID-19 and Nuclear Technology for the Control of Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics), aimed at treating contamination by recycled plastics with radiation technologies and marine monitoring with isotopic tracking techniques, and Rays of Hope.

The latter bring together the IAEA's broad spectrum of expertise to support Member States in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer through radiation medicine.

Cuba participates in regional projects on the sterile insect technique (SIT), for which it has received training and devices to build capacity to control populations of insect vectors such as Aedes aegypti.

The Agency of Nuclear Energy and Advanced Technologies promotes and manages programs and projects of the Nuclear Branch in the country and acts on behalf of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment as the National Liaison Office for Technical Cooperation with the IAEA.