DOST-PNRI boosts nuclear safety & research facilities

The Philippine Nuclear Research Institute - Department of Science and Technology (PNRI - DOST) strengthened its capability in monitoring and irradiation through the latest additions in its stable of nuclear facilities. Particularly, PNRI inaugurated its Electron Beam Facility and received the Environmental Radiation Monitor at the PNRI Compound in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City.

Warming up the event, DOST Secretary Mario G. Montejo opened the celebration with the weather update on Typhoon Hagupit. "When we speak about the weather, let's believe in PAG-ASA, when it's about nuclear, let's believe in PNRI. Let's believe in ourselves," he cheered the audience composed of institutional partners, stakeholders, media, students, DOST-PNRI personnel, as well as foreign dignitaries from Argentina, Russia, France, USA and Japan.

Secretary Montejo also thanked the Korean Government for the turnover of the radiation monitor, and the international community including the USA, Japan, Russia, and Argentina for supporting  the PNRI's project on the Electron Beam Facility. This facility, the first of its kind in the country, will be useful for research, semi commercial electron beam services, and other radiation processing related applications. 

Meanwhile, the Environmental Radiation Monitor System called EFRD-3300  provides continuous and real-time monitoring of ambient gamma radiation. It will be part of a nationwide early-warning system for monitoring radiation emergencies such as that which transpired at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Station in 2011.

According to PNRI Director Dr. Alumanda M. Dela Rosa, "The additional facilities and equipment will be very helpful in improving our capabilities, not only in nuclear research but also in radiation protection and nuclear safety." 

Congressman Francis Gerald Aguinaldo-Abaya, First District Representative of Cavite and Keynote Speaker during the opening program, said, "You might be wondering what a congressman and an architect are doing in this highly scientific occasion.   To be honest, it is my brother Sec. Jun Abaya who is the science wiz in the family,” referring to Sec. Joseph Emilio Abaya of the Department of Transportation and Communication who himself is also a former House representative.

“In the 14th Congress, one of (my brother’s) legacies to me is the pursuit of the passage of the Comprehensive Nuclear Energy Law,” beamed  Abaya who is a member of the House committees  on information and communications technology, and science and technology. 

House Bill 147 or the Comprehensive Nuclear Law will create a separate Regulatory Body independent of PNRI.

On the said law, he said, “I am proud to work with PNRI in shepherding (its) passage... in Congress …the bottomline is, there is a need for the Philippines to be internationally compliant with our nuclear regulatory practices.”

He then pledged to the audience that he will “continue to work hard to push for its passage during this congress.”

Ma. Lilibeth P. Padilla

Public Affairs Unit, Communication Resources and Production Division

Science and Technology Information Institute

Department of Science and Technology (DOST-STII)

Vertical veggie garden with fish tank

Just a small space measuring 1 meter x 2. 5 meters with plenty of sunlight is enough for you to raise your fish and grow your veggies too.  

This system for farming fish and plants together, called aquaponics, was featured in the recently held National Science and Technology Week (NSTW).  

The fish waste provides the nutrients for the plants, while the plants filter the water for the fish.  

A pump is used to circulate the water from the fish tank (blue container) into the series of tubes where the plants are contained and back into the fish tank.   

The setup shown is best suited for raising tilapia, and other freshwater fish, and growing leafy vegetables such as pechay, lettuce, and kangkong. For more details call S&T Media Service at (02) 837-7520.

DOST launches first food processing innovation center

QUEZON CITY---The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) recently launched the country's first ever food processing innovation center at the Philippine Women’s College (PWC)  in Matina, Davao City.

The P5.3M food processing innovation center is a joint undertaking among the DOST, PWC, Department of Trade and Industry, Food Processing Association of Davao, and the Davao City Government.

“(The center) aims to produce value-added agricultural and fishery food products by becoming the hub for innovations and technical support services for the food processing industry in Davao region,” said DOST Region 11 Director Anthony C. Sales.

The services offered by the food processing innovation center included food testing, information, packaging and labeling design, consultancy services, trainings, and seminars.

DOST hopes that the center becomes a springboard for Davao’s food processors to reach local and global standards in processing technology.

“Food processing contributes more than 40 percent of the Philippines’ major manufacturing output,” said DOST Undersecretary for Regional Operations Carol M. Yorobe during the launching.

Usec. Yorobe said that the establishment of a food processing innovation center in every region of the Philippines is part of DOST’s  S&T interventions for the food industry.

Housed within the PWC grounds at the heart of bustling Davao City, the center  is GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices)-compliant and boasts of fabricated equipment by DOST’s Industrial Technology Development Institute as part of the Department’s High-Impact Technology Solutions program.

The Center's equipment hastens the production process and improve food and packaging quality in order to enhance product marketability and enable products to withstand transport.

Among these pieces of equipment are the vacuum fryer which allows frying of vegetables, root crops, mangoes , and jackfruit  without eliminating  their color and natural flavor; spray dryer which provides a faster and more efficient drying method and better control of powder quality; and the water retort which offers retortable pouch packaging as a low-cost, environment-friendly, and more convenient alternative.

Retort refers to the method of heat sterilization that frees food products from pathogens, making the food shelf stable.

The food processing innovation center is also equipped with a vacuum evaporator for coco honey, tomato paste and condensed milk;  freeze dryer for meats, fruits, and vegetables; vacuum packaging machine ideal for foods stored and packed in retortable pouches like cereals, nuts, cured meat, chips, and the like; and the immersion freezer which ensures faster cooling process.

“Effective technology application and deployment are possible with the partnership of government and the academe,” Yorobe added.

Davao Region’s pioneering food processing innovation center also serves as a common service facility for food technology students and professors.  

(S&T Media Service, DOST-STII)

Blue Gene to help Philippines get better, earlier weather forecasts

QUEZON CITY, May 17 ---- Stars are falling in the Philippines.

A replica of IBM Blue Gene
https://www.facebook.com/lyndon.plantilla

 Vin Diesel and Sarah Jessica Parker were here. 

So did Aerosmith, Modern English and Alarm.

But is the country ready to roll out the carpet for a  supercomputer?

It is not a Korean pop-band: it's Blue Gene, International Business Machine (IBM)'s  powerful computing machine in the whole of South East Asia to date.

And the machine will take up its residence at the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UP-Diliman)-National Science Complex probably the same time around when the  Indiana Pacers battle the Houston Rockets in the Phillippines' first NBA  showdown in October down Southern Mega Manila.

"As IBM Blue Gene takes local research to the realm of high complex, scientific computing...we can use advance weather modeling software that will assimilate data from satellite, Doppler RADARS and other advanced weather tools and sensors, including DOST-ASTI automated weather stations, water-level monitoring sensors, and rain gauges all over the country," said Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo during the ceremonial turn-over of the Supercomputer Thursday afternoon.

Secretary Montejo said IBM Blue Gene can help extend the country's weather forecasting period from three days to seven days.

"Weather information will be more site-specific or area specific. Using climate change modeling software will come up with better seasonal forecasts--information very important to our farmers---and for better water resource management. We can come with improved climate change scenarios, again, information that is very important to policy-decision makers, " said Secretary Montejo.

In the Age of Big Data, Montejo said IBM Blue Gene can process voluminous data available and harness its potential benefits in terms of information which are applicable to agriculture, healthcare and bioformatics.

  

Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo (third from the left) flanked by UP President Alfredo Pascual and IBM Country Manager Mariels Almeda Winhoffer  pose with Blue Gene behind them.

    "The amount of uncertainty will be reduced because of the tools and the data that will be processed by this Supercomputer," said Montejo, " this is really poverty alleviation because the hardest hit by climate change are the poor."

For her part, IBM Philippines President and Country Manager Mariels Almeda Winhoffer said "this is a direct result from the agreement between the DOST and IBM in May 2012 to jointly build a Philippine System and Technology Research and Development Lab to help accelerate national economic growth."

Winhoffer added that the collaboration is " IBM's response to President Aquino's call for help to support research and development projects to enable transformation and progress in the country."

The first priority of IBM and DOST is to figure out how the IBM Blue Gene will complement the National Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH), the country's integrated information system for disaster mitigation and climate change.