Australia helps Vietnam ensure the security of radioactive sources

Australia will help train Vietnamese experts in identifying, storing derelict radioactive sources or poor management, and building up legal infrastructure for this issue. The program is part of the Southeast Asia Radioactive Security Project , which aims to reduce the risk for the entire region.

Familiar symbols on radioactive devices.People can base on this symbol to know which precaution

Southeast Asia Radio Sources Security Project funded by the Australian government, with a budget of $ 4.5 million, conducted over three years, from July 2004. The project has just started in Vietnam, and this week, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Agency will discuss with the Nuclear Radiation Safety and Control Department (Ministry of Science and Technology) to determine Vietnam needs support.

Experts of the Agency for Nuclear Radiation Safety and Control said that Vietnam can only control large sources of radiation (such as medical radiotherapy facilities, radiation irradiation facilities, radiography facilities). industry.). These sources, when imported, have been recorded and checked periodically, so the loss is unlikely. It is worth noting that radioactive sources were lost during the war (most in the South) and radioactive equipment imported since 1997 (when the State has not yet managed this issue). The lost sources of radiation, if released into the environment, will seriously affect people's health, especially the ability to cause strong cancer. In Thailand, in 2000, three radiotherapy sources were stored sloppily at a parking lot, dismantled for scrap iron, causing 10 people to be seriously contaminated, 3 to die.

Mr. Le Quang Hiep, chief of the Office of Nuclear Radiation Control and Safety , said that people cannot recognize a piece of iron or radioactive material or not, so they carefree deadly " scrap iron " from the landfills home. In order to identify them, according to Mr. Hiep, people should pay attention to the typical symbol of radioactive material, a three-cylinder fan image (above), and immediately inform the Department of Science and Technology or the Control Department and Safety of nuclear radiation.

Thuan An