KALUGA. December 11 (RIA Novosti) - An international scientific meeting entitled "Nuclear Medicine and Radiopharmaceutics" is taking place in Obninsk, in the Kaluga Region. The forum is concerned with the present state of and future prospects for the use of nuclear technologies in medicine and pharmaceuticals, which may open up broad horizons for the diagnosis and treatment of serious diseases and above all various cancer growths.
The meeting is being held at the Medical Radiological Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, which has vast experience in using nuclear technologies in medicine and pharmaceuticals. It was organized by the Russian Association of Nuclear Science and Education with the sponsorship of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Nuclear University.
Leading researchers from Russia, Austria, Britain, the United States and France are serving as lecturers and workshop moderators. All of them have been recommended by the IAEA.
Yanko Yanev, head of the nuclear knowledge management unit at the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Energy, delivered a report on how to preserve and transmit nuclear knowledge, stressing that the use of nuclear technologies for the development of many fields, such as nuclear power, has run into a new problem: over recent decades there has been a sharp drop in the number of specialists employed in the nuclear sector, which has affected the safety of nuclear technologies and may, in the future, lead to a loss of potential for innovation.
Forum participants held an unofficial meeting with Obninsk manufacturers of radiopharmaceuticals, attended by Prof. Kishor Solanki, Division of Human Health, IAEA.
Solanki wanted to know if Russian technologies could be passed along to developing countries, particularly former Soviet republics and other countries in Asia. Russian radiopharmaceuticals are of good quality and are cheaper than foreign products, which could help establish a market for such medicines in developing countries, Solanki said.
The meeting will end on December 14.
