philippines

A look inside the mobile hot cell as the team extracts a radioactive source from a medical device. [IAEA Photo][/caption]Among its many other responsibilities, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, helps its member-states find long-term solutions for the safe and secure storage of disused sealed radioactive sources.

Sealed radioactive sources are used in a wide variety of devices in medical, industrial and agricultural facilities worldwide. But if not properly disposed of, these sources present a potential security threat.

The Philippines ranks third among the top three major disaster-prone countries after the Pacific Island States of Vanuatu and Tonga says IOM, the International Office for Migration.

Typhoon Bopha, which ravaged the Philippines late last year, killed over a thousand people and displaced at least 800,000. IOM says it was the most deadly storm globally in 2012 and the most powerful to hit southern Mindanao in more than 100 years causing massive destruction to homes and basic infrastructure.

More than a thousand people died in the Philippines when Typhoon Bopha (locally known as Typhoon Pablo) ravaged southern Mindanao in early December 2012. It was the strongest typhoon to hit the area in decades, triggering flash floods and landslides displacing at least 10,000 people.

The storm also destroyed over 200,000 homes and decimated almost $950 million worth of banana plants and coconut trees, a vital livelihood to the farming community of Compostela Valley.

Beng Poblete-Enriquez reports:

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