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On 31 August 2018, Kamen Velichkov, ISTC Senior Program Manager and Diplomatic Advisor, visited the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Zambia and COMESA. He debriefed Mr. Robert De Raeve, Head of the Political, Press and Information Section/Chargé d'Affaires, and Mr. Gianluca Azzoni, Head of Cooperation Section, on the progress achieved by the EU-funded ISTC-implemented projects MC 5.01/15B Support to the Southern African States in Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, and P-60 Support to the CBRN ECA Center of Excellence in Nuclear Security. Zambia is an active participant in both projects.
The interlocutors noted that Project MC 5.01/15B is complementary to the infrastructural projects on the rehabilitation of Zambian highways. It fits well the priorities of the EU external assistance programmes in Zambia. The EU has supported through investment grants the rehabilitation and upgrading of backbone road infrastructure in Zambia, to enable economic development along main transport corridors crossing the country. The most recently funded projects include the Choma - Livingstone road in the Southern Province and the Great East Road leading to Malawi. Convoys carrying uranium oxide use these roads, and the safety of such deliveries is a component of the road safety.
The project, Support to the Southern African States in Nuclear Safety and Safeguards, is funded by the EU Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation. It illustrates the currently most important geographic outreach towards third countries, namely towards the African continent. The EC Joint Research Centre wrote about the Project in its 2017 Report Science for the AU-EU Partnership: building knowledge for sustainable development: “(The project ) on uranium mining, milling and transport which involves four countries (Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia and Zambia)… will develop a regional case study and establish nuclear safety and safeguard provisions in each country for both the licensing and control of uranium-mining activities and transport… The project will further identify and address training needs, and will provide a web-based communication system for incidents, movement of nuclear materials, exchanging documents, etc.”