Romanian pollution research gets Norwegian boost

BUCHAREST - A high-tech research project on air pollution in Romania has launched thanks to a €2.5 million grant from Norway at the same time that Romanian authorities have slashed funding for science and research by 70 percent due to the economic crisis.

Magurele, a small town 10 kilometres south of Bucharest, is best known for its nuclear physics institute and made headlines earlier this summer when a US-sponsored team dismantled a Soviet-era reactor and repatriated it to Russia.

But the Magurele campus is not all about Cold-War era nukes. It hosts the Bucharest physics university as well as research institutes in astronomy and cutting-edge technologies for measuring pollution indicators.

High-tech lasers traveling up to five kilometres above the surface of the earth are already being used in the Institute of Opto-electronics, just a few buildings behind the nuclear research site.

A team of 11 young scientists works with the expensive devices, measuring twice a week aerosols - small particles of water, ice and chemical substances floating in the atmosphere. The observation centre in Magurele is part of a pan-European network of similar devices called Lidars, gathering data from different locations, data that are then used in climate change research.

"So far, aerosols have been underestimated as a climate change factor," Anca Nemuc, a senior researcher on the team told EUobserver. "It is important to have good data from the ground, which is then cross-checked with satellite data," she said, pointing to the sky, where the 'Calypso' satellite passes by.

Ms Nemuc noted that she and her colleagues are the first generation of specialists in optical technologies related to climate change research. "Up until recently, Romania was a black spot on the eastern European maps and prognoses for climate change," the scientist said.

Thanks to a €2.5 million grant from Norway's aid scheme for EU's new member states, this research will expand to three other sites in Romania – Timisoara in the west, Cluj in the north and Iasi in the east of the country.

The funding comes at a critical time for Romania's scientists, as the government has slashed the budget allocated for research by 70 percent due to the economic crisis.

"The Romanian authorities are not interested in research. They've just cut our funding. Without the Norwegian grant, this project would have not survived," Ms Nemuc said.

The project will include a science centre for school children, where they can see different physics experiments, short videos and interactive games. University students in all four cities will have access to all the data gathered by the sites and use it for further research.

The new building hosting the Romanian atmospheric research 3D observatory (RADO) should be finished by April 2011. The Romanian government approved its part of the financing - €40,000 for construction works - last year.

Ms Nemuc was confident the government would respect its promise, as it would otherwise undermine the entire grant.

Highly polluted capital

With its 2 million inhabitants and an overcrowded traffic system designed in the austerity years of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu when streets were empty and cars were a luxury, Bucharest is facing major pollution problems.

The laser scientists in Magurele also have a mini-van able to measure particles and pollution on the ground. In a project ran earlier this year with the local public transportation company, they revealed that the air in the capital was four times more polluted than on a plain field outside the city.

Levels of micro-particles, dust and CO2 are much higher than the allowed maximum, resulting in increased numbers of asthma patients and strong allergies, especially among children.