Steph Bloomer leads Mott MacDonald ' s Radioactive Waste and Radiation Protection team , sits on SRP Council and is Chair of Outreach Committee

Last year ' s Annual Conference had some very memorable talks from international presenters . One of these particularly stood out as a human interest story . This was the presentation given by Estiner Katengeza .

In radiation protection there is always a lot of value in learning from experience and this was the case with regards to customs and revenue in Malawi ! The equipment was eventually delivered to Estiner in October , and she said “ This donation is extremely helpful to our department and will significantly improve our teaching and learning experience . This is greatly appreciated .”

Estiner is a lecturer in applied nuclear physics at Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences . She shared her experience of studying in both Surrey and Tokyo and spoke about her passion for improving the practical lessons at her university ; this was very challenging due to a lack of instrumentation . The presentation sparked a very supportive discussion with the audience .

Thankfully , the conversation did not end there . SRP member John Shepley from Pharmaron took the time to follow up on the issue . He recognised that his company had some instruments no longer in use that could be donated free to Estiner and her students , and three were soon on their way to Malawi :

• a Mini900 EP15 - for the detection of soft beta contamination and alpha contamination

• a Mini900 44A - for the detection of low energy X-rays

• a Corentium Canary Radon monitor for short and long term radon monitoring

Many readers will be familiar with the Mini Instruments ratemeters which have been a workhorse of the radiation protection field for some time . In addition , multimeters and operating manuals were sent to help Estiner use the Mini Instruments in educational experiments .

Estiner demonstrates the donated equipment to some of her students .

We ' re very grateful to our SRP members who take time out of their day jobs to make these things happen .

If any readers would like to offer additional support , Estiner would welcome suggestions for suitable experiments and research projects which could be performed using these donated instruments . Further donations of instruments would also be welcome , particularly those of active or passive radon monitors . Gamma spectroscopy equipment is also on Estiner ' s wish list . Please email RPToday @ srp-uk . org if you can help .

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