ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY LEAD ON VISIT TO CHRISTCHURCH

Press, Volume C, Issue 29436, 11 February 1961, Page 11

ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY LEAD ON VISIT TO CHRISTCHURCH

Mr George Roth, the director of the Dominion X-Ray and Radium Laboratory, who is now on loan to the International Atomic Energy Agency as the director of the isotopes division, arrived back in Christchurch last night after an absence of just over two years. He will leave again next Saturday to fly through America and back to his head-

quarters in Vienna. Mr Roth said that the International Atomic Energy Agency was exclusively concerned with the peaceful application of atomic energy. “We have nothing to do with the bomb whatever,” he said.

It was one of the agency’s statutory obligations to ensure that all fissionable material supplied by the agency to any of its 74 member States was not diverted to non-peaceful uses.

Amon£ the fields of peaceful applications of atomic energy were medicine, agriculture, and power production. All the scientists worked well together, said Mr Roth. “After all, it is in the interest of all member States to progress as quickly as possible and to solve such existing problems as those of radiation protection and waste disposal as efficiently and harmoniously as possible,” he said.

“Bear in mind that this body (1.N.A.E.A.) is probably the only one in which scientists from East and West meet freely to discuss their work in the field of the peaceful uses of atomic energy,” said Mr Roth.

One of the agency's main jobs was to facilitate the exchange of these scientists, because both sides equally profited from any advance that was made.

Another of the agency’s purposes was to assist member States who were just developing work in the field of atomic energy. This was done by providing equipment through technical assistance programmes, instruction in application, and by teaching safe methods. Mr Roth said that in the field of radiation protection one of the still-open questions was what was the mechanism by which radiation affected living cells. “This is a fundamental question and the agency has let about two dozen research contracts in an attempt to elucidate the particular problem,” he said. Another problem—the safe handling of radio-active materials—was one which affected everyone. Here the agency helped its member States not only by providing

fellowships for training scientists from the less-developed countries, but also by providing rules and draft regulations and by holding conferences specifically devoted to such problems.

Mr Roth's division, which deals with isotopes, is specifically concerned with work in the live sciences—medicine, agriculture, radio-biology, and radiation protection research, which includes waste disposal and dosemetry. It also includes health and medical physics. In addition to himself, Mr Roth said that there were two other New Zealanders on the headquarters staff in Vienna. One was a professional officer in the division of external liaison and the other was a research chemist. While in Christ church this week, Mr Roth will visit the .Dominion X-ray and Radium Laboratory which is under the control of Mr H. J. Yeabsley during his absence. Mr Roth, who was originally released from his work at the laboratory to join the I.A.E.A. staff as a senior scientist in 1958, was offered a directorship three months after arriving in Vienna. He said that at the end of this year he will come back to Christchurch to resume his job as director of the Dominion Laboratory.