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Record of the 10th FNCA Coordinators Meeting
March 11 to 13, 2009, Tokyo, Japan



The 10th FNCA Coordinators Meeting (CM) was held from March 11 and 13, 2009, in Tokyo (Mita Conference Hall), Japan, hosted by Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), Cabinet Office (CAO) of Japan, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Chairperson of the Meeting was Dr. Sueo Machi, FNCA Coordinator of Japan.

The Meeting was attended by delegates from ten FNCA countries, i.e., Australia, the People's Republic of Bangladesh, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Republic of the Philippines, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, including FNCA Coordinators, Project Leaders, and Senior Officials. Mr. Kun-Mo Choi, Director of RCA Regional Office, IAEA also participated. Participant List (Attachment 1) and Final Agenda of the Meeting (Attachment 2) are attached.

Opening Session

Dr. Machi officially opened the 10th FNCA Coordinators Meeting.
Prof. Shunsuke Kondo, Chairman of Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), addressed a welcome remark. He expressed warm welcome to all participants, celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Coordinators Meeting, and thanked Philippine Government for its hospitality on the 9th Ministerial Meeting in Manila last year. He also emphasized the importance of agenda items on the project review, study panel on the infrastructure development for NPP, and the CDM case study for nuclear power. He also stressed nuclear energy is of long-term in nature even in the recent recession of the world economy.
The meeting agenda as attached was adopted without change.

Session 1: Report on the 9th FNCA Ministerial Meeting

Dr. Takeshi Yokoo, Deputy Director for Atomic Energy, Cabinet Office (CAO) of Japan, reported the summary of the 9th FNCA Ministerial Meeting (MM) held in Manila, the Philippine, on November 28th, 2008.

He reported that the 9th FNCA Ministerial Meeting adopted a resolution on three items, namely the following up Joint Communiqué in 2007, study panel on infrastructure development for nuclear power, and stronger linkages with potential end-users in projects on radiation applications. These three issues were discussed at the respective session of the Coordinators Meeting.

Session 2: Development of Nuclear Safety Infrastructure
(Summary report and follow-up of the 2nd Study Panel (2008))

Mr. Hiroshi Nunota, Deputy Director, Secretariat of the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) of Japan, CAO reported the summary and the follow-up of the 2nd meeting of the 2nd-phase Study Panel for "Cooperation in the Field of Nuclear Energy in Asia" in September 2008 in Tokyo, including the report to 9th FNCA Ministerial Meeting by Dr. Kunihisa Soda, Commissioner, the NSC of Japan as the chairperson of the meeting. In the 2nd meeting, it had been proposed and recommended that 1) information exchange, practices and experience feedback among countries operating NPP and planning to introduce NPP by seminars and/or workshops on specific topics, 2) coordination with other international frameworks such as IAEA/ANSN, ASEAN+3, and bilateral cooperation mechanism.

After the presentation, Mr. Yoshiyuki Chihara, Director International Nuclear and Fusion Energy Cooperation Affairs Division, MEXT commented on the importance of Nuclear Liability System in the countries which are planning to introduce NPP in each country. And he expressed that MEXT would make possible support for the construction of this system in each country.

Dr. Hur Jae Yong, First secretary for Science and Technology, Embassy of Korea made the brief introduction about "International Nuclear Safety Master's Degree Program" managed by KINS-KAIST"

Session 3(1): Study Panel on the Approach toward Infrastructure Development for Nuclear Power

New 3rd-phase Study Panel on "The Approach toward Infrastructure Development for Nuclear Power" was approved at the 9th Ministerial Meeting in November 2008.
Dr. Machi presented the outline of terms-of-reference (TOR) for the 3rd-phase Study Panel, which was agreed as follows;

1) A NPP introduction process is divided into the following three stages;
(1) Feasibility study and site selection
(2) Design/license and field construction
(3) Commercial operation and maintenance
2) Experiences of China, Japan, and Korea in the infrastructure development for a NPP are shared with other member countries.
3) Participants of the study panel are Coordinators, senior officials and/or experts responsible for infrastructure development for nuclear power (e.g. a ministry in charge of energy policy or a utility company), and senior officials and experts of IAEA and/or other international organizations (if necessary).
4) As an initial step, the study panel will be held in 2009 to 2011, and frequency is one meeting per year. In this step, infrastructure development on the stage (1) and (2) will be focused.
5) The 1st meeting of the 3rd-phase Study Panel will be held in Japan, and the 2nd and the 3rd meetings will be in Korea and Indonesia, respectively.
6) The 3rd-phase Study Panel can be extended beyond 3 years. In the 3rd meeting (in 2011), additional discussion items and contents will be further reviewed and determined. It was also noted that China and Thailand expressed their wishes to host future meetings.

Following concerns have been also commented.

1) Different conditions in the member countries should be considered while discussing details on infrastructure development. (by Bangladesh, China, Indonesia)
2) Specific infrastructure themes had better be focused, because current TOR covers broad range of themes. (by Korea)
3) Guidelines including results of the study panel had better be published, which will be helpful for member countries, and furthermore will contribute to IAEA. (by Malaysia, Vietnam)

Session 3(2): Feasibility Study on a CDM project for Nuclear Power

Mr. Masaharu Fujitomi, Executive Director, Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. Japan made a presentation on the concept and practice of CDM, and comments on possible case study for a nuclear power plant in developing countries.

Responding to comments of participants, Mr. Fujitomi mentioned that position of COP about the inclusion of NPP in CDM may change because of very limited reserve of oil.
Dr. Machi, the FNCA Coordinator of Japan urged national coordinators to encourage their delegations to propose the inclusion of nuclear power in the CDM as an agenda at the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. Joint action between officials who are in charge of nuclear power and those in charge of environmental protection should be taken to achieve the proposal.

In order to show possibility and merit of nuclear power in the CDM, Dr. Yokoo proposed for member countries to perform case study for nuclear power plant, in which economical merit and certified emission reduction (CER) would be evaluated quantitatively. Seven countries accepted to perform the case study. Report of the case study should be sent to CAO by the end of August 2009. Case studies of member countries will, accordingly, be discussed at the 1st meeting of the 3rd-phase Study Panel, and will be submitted to 10th FNCA MM in November or December 2009.

Session 4: Progress, Evaluation and Planning of FNCA Projects

The activities of the on-going eleven projects of FNCA were reviewed by coordinators and project leaders from Japan and member countries regarding major achievement, socio-economic impacts, and plan for 2009. Project Summary (Attachment 3) is attached,

1. Research Reactor Applications

1) Overview

Overview of the Research Reactor Projects was presented by Dr. Kiyonobu Yamashita, Project Leader of Japan.

2) Research Reactor Technology Project (RRT)

Dr. Kiyonobu Yamashita, Project Leader of Japan, presented the progress and achievements of the project.
It is noted that the certain progress being made in the application of COOLOD for assessment of safety of research reactor. It was reported that COOLOD and EUREKA have been verified and accepted by regulators in Japan. (The validation basis of EUREKA was requested.) It was pointed out the differences in the result could be due to the modeling of cooling by natural convection. It was requested that cooling by natural convection and forced convection should be compared for the Bangladesh reactor. The major activity in 2009 is to use EUREKA for safety analysis in transient state.

3) Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA)

Dr. Mitsuru Ebihara, Project Leader of Japan, made presentations on the progress and Dr. M. Mosharraf Hossain of Bangladesh, reported about pollution of seacoast by ship breaking industry and its monitoring using NAA.
The Meeting noted certain progress of the application of NAA for monitoring food contaminants for safety and exploration of mineral resources. Dr. Machi pointed out linkage with end-users in environment protection, mineral exploration and food contaminant is essential for utilization of measurement.

2. Cyclotron and PET in Medicine (PET)

Dr. Noriah Binti Jamal, the representing Project Leader of Malaysia, and Dr. Keigo Endo, Project Leader of Japan, presented the status of the project.
It was noted that the progress made in the first phase of the Project: 1) publication of guideline for radiation protection and performance evaluation of PET/CT, 2) publication of QA and QC of FDG, 3) publications of case review for clinical PET/CT in CD format, and 100 cases have been collected for ATLAS of diagnosis. It was pointed out that PET-CT has clear advantage over conventional γ-camera and SPECT even it is more costly. Extension of project for two years proposed by Malaysia at the 9th Ministerial Meeting was agreed by the meeting. Objectives of the extended project are radiation safety of workers of PET/cyclotron facilities and increasing cases for ATLAS.

3. Radiation Oncology (RO)

Dr. Hirohiko Tsujii, Project Leader of Japan, presented progress of the project in 2008, and Dr. Yaowalak Chansilpa, Project Leader of Thailand, reported the activities of the project in Thailand.

The meeting noted that tangible progress of the project in establishing the new protocols for treatment of uterine cervix cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer. It was pointed out that disseminate of information on protocol study is essential. Dr. Machi reiterated that member countries should explore possible use of ODA for provision of radiation therapy machines, which are in highly shortage in most FNCA countries.

4. Mutation Breeding (MB)

Dr. Hitoshi Nakagawa, Project Leader of Japan, reported the results of the 2008 Workshop held in Dalat, Vietnam on October 27 - 30, 2008. The meeting noted that the new sub-project on "Composition or Quality Improvement in Rice" is in progress including irradiation of rice seed by ion beams in JAEA. Concerning the application of ion beams he reported that "The Workshop for Ion Beam in Japan" was held in Takasaki on January 19 - 22, 2009. The banana sub-project will be extended for two years. Bangladesh emphasized the importance of mutation breeding of rice which is tolerant to saline soil.

5. Bio-fertilizer

Dr. Shotaro Ando, Deputy Project Leader of Japan, reported the results of the 2008 Bio-fertilizer Workshop held in Indonesia on February 23 - 26, 2009. Meeting noted importance of bio-fertilizer for sustainable agriculture. Dr. Machi urged coordinators to facilitate the use of existing irradiation facilities for sterilization of carriers for production of better quality inoculants. It was pointed out that cost comparison between radiation sterilization of carriers and autoclave sterilization by high pressure system is needed.

6. Radiation Processing of Natural Polymers

Dr. Tamikazu Kume, Project Leader of Japan, reported the overall progress of the project in 2008, including the results of the 2008 Workshop on October 27 - 31, 2008 in Shanghai, China, and the collaboration with RCA. The meeting highlighted that the demonstration of radiation processing of chitosan using large irradiation vessel was conducted in BATAN, Indonesia, and the delivery of the irradiated chitosan samples to member countries for field test. An agreement was made to extend the project till 2011 focusing on plant growth promoter (PGP) and super water absorbent (SWA).

Ms. Charito T. Aranilla, Project Leader of the Philippines, presented a review of the activities in the Philippines on radiation processing of natural polymers. She enumerated the current status, major outcome and socio-economic impact of each activity in the project. She also reported the line up of activities for the next phase of the project including participation to the field test using irradiated chitosan produced in BATAN, Indonesia.

7. Public Information of Nuclear Energy (PI)

Mr. Minoru Kubo, Project Leader of Japan, reported the results of the 2008 PI Project Leaders Meeting on November 10 - 14, 2008 in Beijing, China. It was pointed out focus and strategies of PI activities are different by country. Opinion survey on nuclear power in member countries was proposed and accepted because of changing in the recognition of significance of nuclear power for mitigation of global warming and energy security. Preparation of questionnaire is important for appropriate survey.
The meeting noted the importance to evaluate outcome of PI project to promote acceptance of nuclear technology.

8. Human Resources Development (HRD)

Dr. Jun Sugimoto, Project Leader of Japan, and Dr. M. Mosharraf Hossain, Member, Planning & Development, BAEC, presented a review of the activities of the HRD project and the results of the 2008 HRD Workshop held in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dr. Machi pointed out that improving matching programs with requests is an urgent challenge of ANTEP. He urged member countries to offer training programs.

9. Nuclear Safety Culture (NSC)

Dr. Ron Cameron, FNCA Coordinator of Australia, reviewed the project for 10 years and presented the new project for 5 years. New project will be focused on Safety Management System for Research Reactor Facilities. Dr. Machi appreciated the new proposal on nuclear safety for 5 years based on the previous project of which peer review of research reactor safety culture was very successful. Dr. Cameron of Australia stressed the new project is not overlapping ANSN of IAEA.

10. Radioactive Waste Management (RWM)

Prof. Toshiso Kosako, Project Leader of Japan, presented a review of the activities, achievement of the project and the results of the 2008 Workshop in Sydney Australia from November 3 - 7, 2008. He showed the cooperation between FNCA and IAEA/ANSN RWMTG, and IAEA/RCA for the information exchange. The meeting noted that the project has been implemented focusing on radiation safety, but the coordinators stressed the importance of continuing to focus on radioactive waste management as well.

Session 5: RCA Activities

Mr. Kun-Mo Choi, Director of RCA Regional Office, IAEA, made the presentation about major activities, recent achievement of RCA and RCA Regional Office. RCA is the Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology for Asia and the Pacific, established in 1972. Currently 17 countries including FNCA countries are participating to RCA.


RCA mission is the followings:

1) To identify and implement nuclear technologies for regional needs
2) To encourage sustainability of nuclear technology capacities in RCA Member States
3) To coordinate cooperative research in nuclear science and technology
4) To promote the benefits of nuclear technologies and identify funding mechanisms
5) To develop regional networks for exchange of technologies, training and equipment

RCA's Key Areas is the followings.

1) Agriculture
- Mutation Breeding /Biotechnology, Food Irradiation
2) Environment
- Water Resources, Air Pollution, Marine Pollution
3) Human Health
- 3D Conformal Radiotherapy, Image based Radiotherapy, PET and PET/CT, Medical Physics
4) Industry
- Radiation Processing, Industrial Radiography and Nuclear Tracer Technique
5) Radiation Protection

Mr. Choi also explained about the coordinated activities with FNCA. Main cooperation is information exchange by the dispatch of experts to the workshop each other, such as in the fields of 1) Radiation processing (2007 -), 2) Radiation therapy (2007 -) and 3) Mutation breeding (2008 -). The meeting agreed to study the possibility of strengthening cooperation between FNCA and RCA.

Dr. Machi pointed out that FNCA and RCA are in principal complementary and expects further synergy between two programs. Dr. Cameron of Australia pointed out that information exchange on project activities between FNCA and RCA should be further enhanced to reach joint activities eventually if appropriate.

The meeting appreciated the RCA-RO for its participation in the 10th FNCA Coordinators Meeting.

Session 6: Possible Means to Strengthen Linkage with Potential End-users in Radiation Application

The 9th Ministerial Meeting recommended that strategy to strengthen linkage with potential end-users in radiation application should be prepared. Based on this recommendation, national coordinators discussed how they should strengthen linkage with potential end-users through sharing the best practice in commercialization.

First, Dr. Machi made the presentation about "Promotion of Practical Applications of FNCA Achievements" proposing talking points of this session. And then Dr. Muhd Noor Muhd Yunus, Deputy Director General, MNA, Malaysia made the presentation of "Success story in Malaysia for face mask produced by radiation" as a success case of commercialization. Finally Dr. Fumio Yoshii, Coordinator, JAEA, made the presentation of "Success story in Japan for wound dressing and plant growth promoter produced by radiation".

In this discussion, some coordinators pointed out the importance of the financial and technical supports by government and national institute in order to fill in the gap between R&D and commercial application. And they also pointed out the importance of the prospect that the profit can be secured and the importance of the registration of the relevant Patents.
Furthermore they pointed out the good balance between basic research and applied research is necessary for long term development of science and technology. Responding to the comment Dr. Machi expressed that FNCA gives priority to the applied research to produce tangible achievements with aiming at a social economical effect, as described in the FNCA Vision Statement.

Session 7: Project Review Summary and Plan for 2009 Including New Proposals

Dr. Machi summarized the review of 11 projects progress in 8 fields and plan for Japanese FY 2009. Through the review in session 4, 1) extension of Cyclotron and PET in Medicine (PET) project for two years was approved, 2) in Mutation Breeding (MB), banana sub-project was extended for further two years, 3) new phase of project on Application of Electron Accelerator (2009 - 2011) for radiation processing to produce PGP and SWA was approved. 4) New project of Nuclear Safety Culture (NSC) (2009 - 2015) about Safety Management System of Research Reactor activities for five years was approved.

And then Mr. Chihara made the presentation about S&T cooperation with Asian Countries in MEXT, such as Nuclear Researchers Exchange Program (1985 -), Instructor Training Program (1996 -), International Seminar on Nuclear Safety (Administrative Management Course (2002 -), Plant Safety Course (2006 -)) , S&T cooperation with Asian countries on global issues (JST-JICA).

Finally, Dr. Machi, made the presentation about "Point of Reviewing FNCA projects by National Coordinators approaching new trends". In this presentation, Dr. Machi pointed out the followings issues. The meeting agreed that each country will review each project activity taking these issues into consideration.

  1. Project should meet with national and regional priority needs
  2. Effective ways and means of cooperation for each project, such as workshops, cooperative research, joint research team and peer review mission
  3. Enhancing synergies between FNCA activities and other nuclear science and technology cooperation programs of the MEXT
  4. Focusing activities on carefully selected projects based on appropriate criteria, such as needs of participating countries, expected tangible results, and their socio-economic impact
  5. Each project should be implemented with selected countries which actively contribute to and can be benefited with respective project
  6. Clear picture of linkage with potential end-users of project results in participating countries

Dr. Machi requested National Coordinator to submit suggestions, and comments about above mentioned points, in particular priority of projects and possible new projects by the end of May in 2009.
Dr. Cameron of Australia pointed out that FNCA should publish appropriate technical document describing developed technology to be distributed to potential end-users, which was supported by the meeting. Dr. Choi of RCA-RO stated that RCA and FNCA should share experience and information to effectively approach potential end-users and succeed commercial application.
Dr. Muhd Noor of Malaysia mentioned that Jatropha, from which bio-fuel can be produced, would be a good candidate for the mutant breeding project in the future, replacing project that is ending this year.

Session 8: Human Resources Development Database (Follow-up of the 1st Study Panel (2007))

Dr. S. Sugimoto, Chairperson of the 1st meeting of the 2nd-phase Study Panel, presented the current status of the Human Resources Development (HRD) database. It was noted that good progress has been made with the data obtained from the member countries. Dr. Sugimoto proposed the first version of the database should be completed in the coming April as scheduled so that it would be in practical use. His proposal was agreed by the delegates of member countries.

Dr. Hossain of Bangladesh offered their contribution to the database. China and Thailand delegates pointed out that free access to the database is desirable in future, whereas Indonesia and Australia preferred to keep it under minimum limited access. Dr. Cameron of Australia also pointed out the ways of avoiding the overlapping of the HRD Database with ANTEP should be considered.

It was proposed by the secretariat to collect and compile comments from member countries on the contents and utilization of the database at the 1st meeting of the 3rd-phase Study Panel in 2009, and to report possible resolution to the 10th FNCA MM.

Demonstration of the HRD database had been performed by JAEA in the exhibition area next to the Coordinators Meeting room.



Session 9: Future Plan for FNCA

Dr. Yokoo made a presentation on the Future Plan of FNCA activities, such as 10th Ministerial Meeting, 11th Coordinators Meeting, the 1st meeting of the 3rd-phase Study Panel , Workshops of Projects in 2009 and 2010. The meeting noted proposed plan and schedule.

1) 10th Ministerial Meeting
Date: November or December 2009
Venue: Tokyo
2) 11th Coordinators Meeting
Date: February or March 2010
Venue: Tokyo
3) 1st meeting of the 3rd-phase Study Panel on the Approach toward Infrastructure Development for Nuclear Power
Date: Summer - Autumn 2009
Venue: Tokyo

For host government and schedules of WS, the meeting noted proposed plan and schedule.

1. Research Reactor Applications
  · Research Reactor Technology Project (RRT)
· Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA)
Date: August 2009
Venue: Japan
2. Cyclotron and PET in Medicine (PET)
  Date: January 2010
Venue: Malaysia
3. Radiation Oncology (RO)
  Date: January 2010
Venue: Malaysia
4. Mutation Breeding (MB)
  Date: October 2009
Venue: China
5. Bio-fertilizer
  Date: October 2009
Venue: Thailand
6. Radiation Processing of Natural Polymers
  Date: March 2010
Venue: Indonesia
7. Public Information of Nuclear Energy (PI)
  Date: November 2009
Venue: The Philippines
8. Human Resources Development (HRD)
  Date: June 2009
Venue: Japan
9. Nuclear Safety Management
  Date: July - September 2009
Venue: Australia
10. Radioactive Waste Management (RWM)
  Date: August 2009
Venue: Vietnam

Dr. Cameron of Australia mentioned that Australia will join the WS of HRD. And Dr. Hossain of Bangladesh stated Bangladesh intends to join the project of radiation oncology. Dr. Machi expressed his wish for Korea to host the project on radioisotope production since Korea has excellent experience and Member countries need to upgrade technology of producing RI using their reactor.

Closing Session

In the Closing Session, a draft of the 10th Coordinators Meeting's Minutes was reviewed. It was agreed that the revised minutes will be circulated to member countries for comments for secretariat to prepare the final version of the minutes to be adopted by the delegates.
Dr. Machi gave his closing remarks, expressing his appreciation to all delegates for their excellent contribution and wishing appropriate supporting actions for FNCA activities.

Attachments:

  1. Participants List of the 10th FNCA Coordinators Meeting
  2. Final Agenda of the 10th FNCA Coordinators Meeting
  3. Project Summary (PDF489KB)

End



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