Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority

NNRA BOARD VISITS NIRPR

The Governing Board of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority, NNRA, led by its Alternate Chairman, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, paid an official visit to the National Institute of Radiation Protection and Research, NIRPR, Ibadan, which is the technical support organisation of the NNRA. The Board was visiting the NIRPR for the first time since its establishment in 2007 to acquaint itself with the functions of the Institute and the infrastructures emplaced to carry them out. The Institute was established under Section 11 of the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Act of 1995 which states that: the NNRA “Shall for the purpose of carrying out its general functions under Section 4 of this Act, establish an institute to be known as the National Institute of Radiation Protection and Research.”
The Board visited the two Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratories, SSDL, in the Institute. The first is the Radiation Protection Level SSDL which was commissioned in 2008 with the technical assistance of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Vienna, Austria. This facility is used to calibrate all Radiation Monitors used by over 2,000 radiation employers in the country. The second is the Therapy Level SSDL which is used to calibrate Radiation Meters that are employed in Radiotherapy (Cancer Clinics) Centres where radiation level is several orders of magnitude higher than in most other practices.
The Director-General of NNRA, Prof. Shamsideen Elegba, said with the SSDL, all calibrations presently done abroad will be done locally and at a much lower cost. The Director of the NIRPR, Prof. Fatai Balogun, said the laboratory equipment for the Therapy Level SSDL will arrive before the end of the first quarter of this year.

BELOW: NNRA BOARD AT THE SSDL LABORATORY, NIRPR

The NIRPR was established in the University of Ibadan which had managed the now defunct Federal Radiation Protection Service, FRPS, since 1964. On September 8, 2005 a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, was signed between the university and NNRA. Since 2006, the NIRPR in collaboration with the University of Ibadan has been running Masters Degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Radiation Protection based on the syllabus of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA. This is the first and only such programme in West Africa.
The NNRA Governing Board earlier paid a courtesy visit to the Vice-Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Folorunsho Adewole. The Board was told that the university is working on a Development Area within the campus with the view to relocating some units including the NIRPR to the area which is more conducive for research work. The Development Area, when completed the Vice-Chancellor said, will be commissioned by the President of Nigeria. He invited the NIRPR to use the university website, at no cost, to publicise its activities.

ALTERNATE CHAIRMAN, NNRA BOARD (right)WITH VC, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

DG, NNRA (right) JOINS NNRA ALTERNATE BOARD CHAIRMAN AND UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN VC IN A GROUP PHOTOGRAPH