Meeting report (pdf) - Nuclear Sciences and Applications - IAEA

3. INTRODUCTION
The IAEA as a leading supporter of the peaceful use of nuclear technology assists
laboratories in its Member States to apply and develop nuclear methods for cultural heritage
research for the benefit of socio-economic development in emerging economies. The Agency
had in the past initiated several projects to support the application of nuclear techniques for
cultural heritage investigations and as a result of a recently completed coordinated research
project (CRP) on “Applications of nuclear analytical techniques to investigate the
authenticity of art objects“, and building up on the expertise of the dedicated experts, decided
to compile a technical document to highlight the role of nuclear techniques for cultural
heritage research. Although the principle of neutron imaging in this CRP was demonstrated,
the art of neutron imaging and the scientific value the technique can offer to the CH
community was not demonstrated to its full capacity.
This proposed new IAEA coordinated research project (CRP) aims to provide an advanced
and scientifically comprehensive neutron based imaging approach which will be implemented
for the imaging of elemental composition of various objects especially focused on end-user
applications. These include mostly objects related to cultural history such as archaeological-,
geological- and palaeontological artefacts. It is expected that this CRP will stimulate and
enhance the utilization of nuclear research reactors and accelerator driven neutron sources as
well as the interest of end users from non-nuclear research fields. Moreover, it will also
enhance the scientific interaction and direct exchange of experiences between the
participating countries in neutron imaging and appropriate dissemination of achieved results
and conclusions. It is expected that the CRP activities will also stimulate and foster the
scientific front-research in novel and advanced neutron based technology. The development
and harmonization of methodologies are also expected to contribute to continuous
improvement of quality control (QC) methods in the participating Member States.
The meeting was opened by Mr. Andrej Zeman, Scientific Secretary of the Coordinated
Research Project (CRP), he welcomed all CRP members. Afterwards, Mr. Daud Mohammad,
IAEA Deputy Director General of Nuclear Sciences and Applications addressed his opening
remarks. Then, the director NAPC, Ms. Meera Venkatesh welcomed all CRP members. The
opening was concluded by short comments of Mr. M. Haji-Saeid (Section Head
NAPC/IACS) and Mr. R.Kaiser (Section Head NAPC/PS) who briefly commented the new
CRP and its overall objectives. The participants accepted having the meeting chaired by Mr.
FC de Beer (South Africa), whereas Mr. M Lerche (USA) was accepted as the rapporteur.
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