ISLAMABAD, March 17: Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has an excellent safety track record and it has developed different state-of-the-art techniques for quality testing, both nuclear and non-nuclear.

This was stated by PAEC member (physical sciences) Dr Masud Ahmad while speaking at an opening ceremony of a joint PAEC/IAEA international training workshop on internal auditing for quality control of nuclear analytical techniques on Monday.

He said the PAEC had been entrusted with the development of multi-disciplinary applications of atomic energy in areas like defence, nuclear power, industry, medicine and agriculture.

“Adherence to quality and safety is our prime objective,” he said.

Speaking on realization of quality, the PAEC member said quality management and spread of quality culture were possible only through social mobility.

Dr Masud said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was assisting laboratories in Regional Cooperation Agreement (RCA) member countries to establish quality systems required to obtain national and international accreditation.

The IAEA representative, Dr Paul Dhorthy, highlighted the PAEC efforts in creating awareness about quality control techniques.

Earlier, Pinstech director-general Dr Abdul Ghaffar said Pinstech had been declared regional resource unit of the IAEA and it was providing support services to other member countries.

The institute is utilizing nuclear energy in its developmental programmes aimed at socio-economic uplift of the country, he added.

Pinstech has to its credit 1,100 research papers, which have been published in scientific journals of international repute. It also received a winner’s shield carrying a cash prize of $100,000 from Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in year 2002, the director- general said.

The workshop director, Dr Shujaat Ahmad, said objective of the workshop was to enable the participating laboratories to develop and maintain a self-sufficient quality system.