VICE-PRESIDENT Mohadi bemoans slow progress at radiation facility construction

VICE-PRESIDENT Dr Kembo Mohadi has bemoaned the slow pace in the construction of the Disused Radio Active Sources Management Facility in Hatcliffe, Harare, which is aimed at providing secure storage for radiation waste and disused radioactive sources.

The facility is being constructed by the Radiation Protection Authority of Zimbabwe (RPAZ).
VP Mohadi made the remarks yesterday after touring the project, whose construction started in 2018.

Although he commended Government for initiating the project, he expressed concern over the slow pace of construction.

“My understanding of the reason why this facility is here is that it has to collect all nuclear waste materials, all radiation materials here,” he said.

“The fact that we have done this in Zimbabwe and we did it with the view that we are growing, our industry is growing (and) is going to produce a lot of nuclear waste materials that need to be stored because it is harmful to the environment and also to the human beings.

“So, I am very much impressed by this, but what actually dampens my spirits is that this thing has been going very slowly, the construction of this facility. You will find that most of the rooms there are empty, we don’t have anything.”

VP Mohadi said he was informed that there is even a laboratory and the waste management facility.
“Yes, we have started, we are the first in the region maybe to have it, but we must do something that is going to be completed,” he said.

The VP pledged to personally ensure that the project is completed.
He said he would engage Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Mr Zvinechimwe Churu to expedite the works.

“As I am here with my Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, so we are going to see to it that we see this thing completed.

“It is our own force, the construction regiment that is doing it and it was also monitored by, I think I saw them here, Local Government.

“So, it’s a beginning,” he said.

RPAZ chief executive Mr Justice Chipuro said the project was being implemented in phases, with the first phase now almost complete.

“This is a seven-hectare piece of land allocated by the Government of Zimbabwe to the Radiation Protection Authority of Zimbabwe.

“It should provide for the integrated infrastructure requirements of the Authority. This building is phase one of the infrastructure which will house disused radiative sources.
“The total construction project is 2,6 million, the second phase will be specialised laboratories at a cost of 1,1 million and the administration block as well as the other ancillaries should cost around 3,5 million.

“So, we are talking slightly below US$8 million and is what Government is committed to ensure that there is adequate radiation protection infrastructure in the country,” he said.

Mr Chipuro said the first phase was more than 95 percent complete and could be finalised within three months if funds allocated in the 2026 Budget were released expeditiously.

“If those resources allocated in the 2026 Budget are released it can be completed within three months and then we start the second phase, but as we all are aware, the national fiscal space is a bit constrained.

“The country is still on a development path and we do hope that within the NDS2 the whole infrastructure should be completed,” he said.

Once complete, the facility will house disused radioactive sources and other radioactive waste from mining and mineral processing facilities, industry, medical institutions and research centres.

It is expected to enhance the safety and security of nuclear material and radioactive sources in line with national and international standards.

Zimbabwe has about 200 disused radioactive sources requiring secure storage.
At present, these are kept at various facilities, a situation that compromises safety and security.

The project was initiated in 2018 following a fact-finding mission by RPAZ and the Zimbabwe Defence

Forces, which recommended the construction of a centralised facility for the safe management of nuclear and radioactive waste.

The International Atomic Energy Agency provided expert support in the design of the facility, the security surveillance system and operational equipment.