The International Automatic Energy Agency (IAEA) has approved Nepal's entry as a member and is waiting for approval from the United States, local newspaper The Kathmandu Post reported Sunday.
Nepal is seeking membership not to join the nuclear race, but to make use of it in the area of medicine and agriculture, the report said.
The United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog, IAEA, has recently approved Nepal as its member country for the first time through its general conference, and Nepal is eagerly awaiting the final approval from the United States, according to scientists at the Nepali Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology.
Responding to an application sent by Minister of Foreign Affairs Sahana Pradhan on June 7, the board of governors and general conference of the IAEA respectively recommended and approved Nepal as a member country.
Devi Dutta Poudel, senior scientific advisor of the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, said the country would seek benefit mainly in medical and agriculture sectors first-hand.
When asked how Nepal would benefit from the IAEA membership, Poudel said, "Without being a member of the Agency, Nepal could not buy high doses of radio isotopes and other nuclear material which are important in various research work and in mutating the genes of plants and animals, as well as in the treatment of cancer."
Citing non-membership of the IAEA, some foreign company declined selling bareggy therapy, important in treating cancer patients, to Nepal's cancer hospital, according to Poudel.
"Here we are not going to use nuclear energy for destructive purposes like making atom bomb, but we will seek benefit in the agriculture sector (for promoting production and livestock), medical purposes (producing radiation required in treatment cancer), and no doubt scientists would benefit while doing research in this sector," Poudel adds.
Nepali parliament will have to ratify the decision before becoming a member country of the IAEA, according to Poudel.
For the last 10 years, Nepali scientists have been raising their voice for membership of IAEA but their demands were turned down citing an unfavorable situation in the country.
As the country has an atomic energy policy, an atomic energy plant can also be built with close monitoring and evaluation by IAEA. And Nepali scientists will be given intensive training by the Agency in this respect.
Source: Xinhua
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