Several Texas Tech researchers and graduate students will leave for Ukraine on Sunday to begin their collaboration and training programs with the Iraqi government.
Earlier this year, scientists at the Center of Environmental Radiation Studies received $948,000 in grants from the U.S. Department of State and $363,500 from the United Kingdom to train Iraqis on how to dismantle nuclear facilities in a manner consistent with international standards.
Ron Chesser, director for the Center of Environmental Radiation Studies, said the goal of this program is to assist the Iraqi government in several different ways.
"They want to get back into international graces," he said. "They want to fulfill all of the demands that led them to the sanctions against Iraq. They want to get all that behind them, and dismantlement of the nuclear facilities is one of those major steps."
Chesser said $510,000 of the grant from the U.S. Department of State will train Iraqis to gain sufficient experience in dismantling in order to begin disassembling bombs by July 1.
Also from the State Department, $438,000 will assist Iraq by creating a radiation workers safety program to protect the workers during dismantlement procedures.
The $363,500 from the United Kingdom will help train former Iraqi scientists on project management during this dismantlement process.
The Tech researchers' job is to help Iraqis conduct science. From there, the experiments will point out where deficiencies are and where regulations and new programs are needed.
The researchers act as a stimulus, as Chesser said they will help point out complications in the Iraqis procedures.
"We're not really advising the Iraqi government," he said. "Most of it is really following in the wake of performing science and letting them realize where the deficiencies are."
Carl Phillips, professor of biology, said that through this program, they are implementing U.S. policy.
The U.S. government wants the Iraqi government to become functional and rejoin the national community since they were ostracized in the early 1990s, which Phillips said is a reason why the researchers are there.
"I think ultimately, the role Ron and I have is through this project, to try to make those things happen," Phillips said. "We try to guide the Iraqi government so it becomes functional. We try to help Iraqis to gain their international credibility as part of the world community."
Phillips said they try to work directly with the Iraqis and give them guidelines and ideas.
This project is mainly about science diplomacy, as Phillips said it involves American scientists from university settings helping to achieve diplomatic goals.
"Another thing that helps us a lot is that we're academic based and we're not traditional diplomats," he said. "We can work outside of the typical diplomatic channels."
Working for Tech gives researchers a huge amount of flexibility, and the program links back to the university, which Phillips said creates an educational experience.
Eric Howell, a second-year graduate student from Moscow, Idaho, said this is a great program because it allows American researchers to educate the Iraqi scientists to remediate contamination, while involving students in the process.
"It's really neat that not only we get this experience," Howell said, "we get to learn how to understand the diplomacy that goes with this sort of science."
Brenda Rodgers, assistant professor in biology, said she will be heading a health testing program, starting in the first week of June. The process trains Iraqi scientists how to get informed consent from the volunteers, sampling, and analyzing those samples in the lab.
Rodgers said some challenges they face in this project are language barriers, cultural differences, and the fear of people being exposed to radiation.
"This is a new government," she said. "The people aren't necessarily sure what to expect or interpret things. So our goal is to help the government gain credibility."
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