Behind the Scenes: IAEA Laboratories Open their Doors to Virtual Visitors

Since the IAEA opened its first laboratory in Vienna to train scientists from Member States to work with radioisotopes, numerous specialized labs have been established under the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, including eight laboratories in Seibersdorf, Austria, one at the Vienna International Centre, and three at the IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories in Monaco. Visitors can now tour all of them by clicking on the corresponding link below:

• Animal Production and Health Laboratory
• Dosimetry Laboratory
• Food Safety and Control Laboratory
• Insect Pest Control Laboratory
• Isotope Hydrology Laboratory
• Marine Environmental Studies Laboratory
• Nuclear Science and Instrumentation Laboratory
• Plant Breeding and Genetics Laboratory
• Radioecology Laboratory
• Radiometrics Laboratory
• Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition Laboratory
• Terrestrial Environmental Radiochemistry Laboratory

IAEA safeguards, a series of technical measures to verify that States honour their international nuclear non-proliferation obligations, require Agency inspectors to travel across the world to perform in-field verification of a country’s nuclear material and technology. The interactive tour allows visitors to learn about the equipment that IAEA safeguards inspectors use in verifying the peaceful use of nuclear material.

Set within the IAEA Equipment Laboratories at the IAEA headquarters, visitors can digitally ‘wander’ around exhibits detailing radiation monitoring and screening tools, non-destructive assay equipment, surveillance and unattended monitoring capabilities, and the seals and containment applied to nuclear material.

Visitors can also tour the IAEA Radiation Safety Technical Services laboratory, set in the IAEA Headquarters, and learn about the individual monitoring and protection services for around 3000 IAEA workers annually exposed to radiation, which ascertain radiation doses received and help to ensure that exposure levels stay below dose limits.

Inside the virtual lab, visitors will see where staff collect their personal monitoring devices for use in global inspection and verification activities in around 110 countries a year, learn about the instruments used for detecting radionuclides present inside the body, and be introduced to the staff responsible for conducting more than 46 000 individual monitoring measurements annually to determine the internal and external exposure of the workers to ionizing radiation, in support of IAEA activities.