Radiotherapy was widely used to combat cancer.

Access to life saving radiotherapy is limited or non existent in many areas.

We have substantially stepped up our Internet presence, we have revitalized our public seminar programme, and we have conducted a series of media campaigns on important topics, including nuclear security, radiotherapy, nuclear power and earlier this month the Chernobyl Forum report.

By way of comparison, consider that in Austria, where the Agency is headquartered, we have approximately one radiotherapy machine for every 270,000 people whereas for most African countries the ratio is about one machine for every 10 million people, and some countries have no such facilities at all.

These locations are generally not as well protected as nuclear facilities. Even a relatively small amount of material such as cobalt 60 used in radiotherapy could cause serious harm if combined with conventional explosives in a so called dirty bomb (or otherwise deliberately used to expose the public to dangerous radiation).

Access to life saving radiotherapy for cancer treatment, research and development to enhance food yields and agricultural production, nuclear technology for safe drinking water and seawater desalination, use of the sterile insect technique (SIT) to eliminate tsetse flies, and nuclear techniques to create a safer environment are all areas of application that are germane to the socio economic development of the developing countries with teeming but needy populations, including Nigeria.