Speaker
Dr
SIMON MULLINS
(Botswana International University of Science and Technology)
Description
Nuclear Science and Technology (NST) hold the potential to meet the objectives of the Botswana Vision 2036, which seeks to transform Botswana from a middle-income to a high-income nation. Botswana intends to capitalize on the deployment of high-tech nuclear technologies for meeting its national development goals through the establishment of BINST - the Botswana Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology (BINST). BIUST is leading the project to establish BINST which will consist of state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and infrastructure that will include a suite of accelerators, namely:
- A 4 MeV tandem accelerator (for Research and Development),
- An 18 MeV compact proton accelerator (for PET isotopes for medical imaging),
- A 70 – 230 MeV proton cyclotron (for isotope production, cancer therapy).
BIUST engaged with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under EVT2306846, and a costed business plan has been submitted to the Government of Botswana for the establishment of BINST. The BINST accelerators would request membership of the African Particle Accelerators Collaboration Committee (APACC), which resolved at its first meeting on 8th February 2022 to establish a technical forum between all facilities for seeking advice and help in a prompt and swift manner. BIUST already has an MoU with iThemba LABS in South Africa which will enable the expertise at the latter facility to be called upon from Africa’s largest and most technically developed accelerator complex. The MoU encompasses the both the vision and the mission of iThemba LABS, namely:
Vision: To be the leading African organisation for research, training and expertise in accelerator-based sciences and technologies.
Mission: To provide state of the art facilities and programmes for high quality research, training and services in nuclear sciences and applications for the benefit of the people of South Africa and the continent in general.
This promises well for the development of accelerator-based sciences in Botswana, the SADC region and the African continent as a whole.
| Abstract Category | Accelerators |
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Author
Dr
SIMON MULLINS
(Botswana International University of Science and Technology)