KJEMI nr. 6 - 2017

KJEMI 6 2017 23 assistance which was evolved by the United Nations during the previous deca- de. Major technical assistance tools were the granting of scientific fellowships to ambitious students all over the world, the offer of expert advice to Member States and the mobilization of technical missio- ns and fact-finding teams that visited Member States and reported back to the IAEA. In addition, two mobile laboratories were sent around the world to educate young scientists in the use of radioisotopes. A major technical assistance project in the early days of the IAEA had been the calibration and standardization of thy- roid radioiodine uptake measurements. Thyroid uptake tests were based on a simple idea. Patients were given orally ra- dioiodine and 24 hours later scientists took measurements of the uptake of ra- dioiodine by the thyroid gland. Based on the results they could conclude on the type of the thyroid disorder that was pre- sent. At the time thyroid uptake tests con- stituted one of the first diagnostic appli- cations of radioactive tracers, they had been widely used in the diagnosis and in- vestigation of thyroid diseases, and most of all, had political significance due to the radioactive fall out studies. During the Cold War the U.S. government conducted several nuclear weapons tests in Nevada, in the Pacific, and in New Mexico. The radioactive substances released by these tests, known as “fallout,” were carried thousands of miles away from the test site by winds affecting a large number of peo- ple who were eventually exposed to vary- ing levels of radiation. Among the numerous radioactive substances released in fallout was radioi- odine, which collects in the thyroid. Different laboratories in different parts of the world used a variety of methods and equipment to perform thyroid radioiodine uptake measurements. But what the IAEA opted to was to create standard method across the glob and an accurate one. In 1960 the IAEA invited a group of international experts to design the project and advise the staff. Participants came from the US and their allies leaving out- side countries from the eastern bloc, re- flecting the political tensions of the time. The headquarters of the IAEA Secretariat on Kärntner Ring in Vienna from 1958 to 1979. (Courtesy of the IAEA)