The challenges of decommissioning nuclear power plants and rehabilitating  contaminated sites has come under the spotlight at a UN meeting in Madrid, Spain this week.

Some 600 nuclear plants have been built around the world during the last 60 years.

Medical professionals from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa have been trained in a nuclear-derived technique that can quickly detect the Zika virus.

Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) can detect the virus within three hours.

Fallout from nuclear testing in the mid-20th Century is playing a vital role in helping to protect the world’s soils.

Veterinarians and microbiologists from Africa and Asia have been learning how to map the DNA of viruses at a workshop organised by the UN’s atomic energy agency, the IAEA.