A meeting between the president of CNEA Adriana Serquis and authorities from the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) of Italy, including its president Antonio Zoccoli, was held at the Central Office of the National Atomic Energy Commission. During the visit, a new framework agreement and two specific agreements were signed between both parties to collaborate in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), proton therapy and astroparticle physics.
In this way, both institutions renewed their cooperation and development ties through an agreement for the exchange of information, provision of personnel and formulation of joint research projects.
Also present were the director of the Institute of Detection and Astroparticle Technologies, Alberto Etchegoyen, and the area manager of Nuclear Applications for Health, Gustavo Santa Cruz, who gave presentations regarding the activities they carry out in their respective fields.
Regarding the specific agreement on astrophysics, research and development are set as objectives within the framework of international projects such as the Pierre Auger and QUBIC observatories, the ANDES underground laboratory and the INFN’s Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy.
Meanwhile, the specific agreement on Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) and radiotherapies with beams of charged particles, especially proton therapy, provides for joint research in radiobiology, computational dosimetry and treatment planning, among other topics.
Serquis and Zoccoli highlighted the long history of collaboration between the CNEA and the INFN. The president of the Italian institute ‒who is visiting our country for the first time‒ made special mention of the importance of cooperation between countries to develop projects. In addition, he was interested in the Argentine Center for Proton Therapy that the CNEA, INVAP and the UBA are building in the City of Buenos Aires. “This is another issue on which you can cooperate,” Zoccoli stressed.
This meeting represents a new advance in the relations between Argentina and Italy and, particularly, between CNEA and the INFN. And it makes it possible to strengthen a link in the scientific-technological field with the European country, which has always been a strategic partner for the Argentine nuclear sector.