Mr.Ali Akbar Salehi, Head of Atomic Energy Corporation of Iran (AEOI), recently announced the construction of the first hospital with a nuclear medicine department with the support of Austria.
The Managing Director of Iranian Social Security Organization, Seyed Taghi Nourbakhsh added the hospitals will be built in the cities of Shiraz in south and Tabriz in northwest of the country. He indicated that building another hospital in the city of Mashhad is also on the agenda.
Only five countries in the world namely have nuclear hospitals. Due to highly advanced equipment of nuclear hospital the cost of construction of nuclear hospital is estimated as $300 million euros.
Mr. Ali Akbar Salehi earlier said that Iran is taking necessary measures to turn the country into a hub of nuclear medicine production in the Middle East.
Few months before Mr. Ali Akbar visited a nuclear hospital in Vienna, Austria where he wished to develop similar sort of nuclear hospital in Iran as he was inspired with the medical facilities available in Viennese nuclear hospital.
But the hospital deal is a small part of the deal, what Austria really wants is a partnership with Iran…and not in nuclear medicine but in the renewable energy market.
The Austrian energy market is undergoing major change. Digitalization in particular has led to the start of the industry. This applies to both renewable and CO2-based energies. However, in view of the CO2 targets of the EU, the Austrian government is forced to push ahead with the expansion of renewable energies.
Austria’s energy market is still controlled by a few large market participants despite liberalization and more than 145 electricity suppliers. The ten largest suppliers supply almost two-thirds of the commercial customers and 80% of the household. Above all the inertia of the customers in terms of price comparison and vendor exchange has contributed to this continuity. The increasing digitization of the energy market will, however, demand a great deal for the large market participants in the five to ten years to defend their position. The majority of energy companies are therefore planning to expand their portfolio and are considering cooperation. The market for smart home applications is viewed by many market participants as a good opportunity for a new positioning.
In order to speed things up here, especially in the field of research, Austria has joined forces with Iran. Sirious Vatankah, Iranian Vice President of Science and Renewable Technology, met with representatives of the Ministry of Science and Research. An intensified cooperation between Austria and Iran is decided on in the field of renewable technologies. Joint workshops in the field of renewable energy and co-operation with regard to the technology of incineration plants would be in focus.
