OREANDA-NEWS. March 31, 2009. The sides described as fruitful the collaboration between Moldova and the   International Atomic Energy Agency, and highly appreciated the quality of the projects implemented in Moldova with the IAEA's support, reported the Official website http://gov.md/. 

While the value of the carried out projects initially did not exceed 2,000 dollars, presently, the projects amount to 600,000 dollars annually, and the assistance given to Moldova during 2000-2009 is seven million dollars.

The meeting with Prime Minister Zinaida Grecianii is dedicated to the summing up of the favourable multi-annual cooperation focused on the achievement of the priority No 1 of a cooperation programme signed by Moldova and IAEA in 2005. The programme formulated certain goals in the field of radio-therapy, X-ray diagnosis, nuclear medicine, radio-protection and nuclear security as intrinsic components of any nuclear and radiological activity.

Over 50 per cent of the technical assistance provided to Moldova by the IAEA was meant for medical projects, or the health care area will remain important in our further collaboration, the prime minister said. She specified that the assistance given to institutions from other fields, such as the Agriculture and Food Ministry, Emergencies Service and the Academy of Sciences is not less important.

Ana Maria Cetto appreciated the significance of integration the support on behalf of the Agency into national programmes. She confirmed willingness to continue the assistance for Moldova's Oncological Institute, as well as other medical institutions, without ignoring, however, other fields, such as the environmental protection, water resources, radiological protection and waste's management.

The deputy director-general, head of the technical cooperation department at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ana Maria Cetto is on an official visit to Moldova, following an invitation by Prime Minister Zinaida Grecianii. She is accompanied by a manager of national projects financed by the IAEA, Andrei Ciupov.

Ana Maria Cetto is a well-known physicist in the field of electrodynamics, university professor with working experience in universities for over 35 years. She is a member of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Academy of Sciences of Mexico, Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic, Academy of Tajikistan, honorific professor of more universities all over the world. Mrs. Cetto is a consistent promoter of the use of nuclear technologies exclusively on peaceful purposes. As a token of recognizing her activity, Ana Maria Cetto got two Nobel Peace Prizes with the staff of the organisations where she worked more years in a row as member of the board and head of the executive committee of the Pugwash Conference (1995) and deputy director-general of the IAEA (2007).

The visit's goal is familiarising with the implementation of modern nuclear technologies in the medicine field and the official closing of a regional seminar in the field of designing specialised enterprises, licencing and management of radioactive waste, organised by the IAEA in concert with the National Agency of Regulation of Nuclear and Radiological Activities.

This high-level visit emphasizes also the recognition of Moldova's self-assertion in the field of forming an independent infrastructure of regulation, supervision and control in the nuclear and radiological area, as the transfer of nuclear technologies to the developing countries is strictly conditioned by the international organisations on the real independence of the regulation from the operators.