Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Fides Service) – There is no danger of erosion at the CRENK Regional Centre for Nuclear Studies adjoining Kinshasa University, DIA local Catholic news service reports. Experts say although the Centre is in a hilly area and the region has been lashed by torrential rains for the past month, the site is not threatened by erosion. The campus was reinforced two years ago when trees and bushes were planted around the area by university students themselves.
Staff at the Regional Centre for Nuclear Studies deplored news reports that the Centre is in danger. They say this is an attempt to discourage the qualified scientific activity in this Centre which is the only one of its kind in Central Africa. These false alarms were issued amidst growing international pressure for the dismantling of the Centre’s nuclear research reactor. The Centre conducts nuclear medical laboratory experiments and research in physics and chemistry.
The Centre’s reactor TRIGA II has been operative since 1972 and can be used for the production of radioistopes for medicine and industry, treatment of tumours, tests on material and educational purposes.
The international community is concerned about the presence of this structure in a country in the grip of a bloody civil war. LM (Fides Service 21/10/2003 EM lines 38 Words: 478)
