Perfecting the system to respond to radiation and nuclear incidents
According to the Department of Radiation and Nuclear Safety (Ministry of Science and Technology), Vietnam's radiation and nuclear incident response system is currently being formed from the central to local levels with three levels: National, local and grassroots.
It is expected that in 2013, the National Nuclear and Radiation Incident Response Plan, developed by the Department of Radiation and Nuclear Safety, will be completed, which will assess the overall risk of nuclear and radiation incidents, the responsibilities of ministries and branches in response activities, determine intervention levels and other related incident preparation and response work.
Monitoring the reactor with the new control system at the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute.
(Illustration photo: Quang Nhat/VNA)
Currently, 8 provinces and cities nationwide, namely Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Lang Son, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Duong, have completed provincial incident response plans, in which some provinces and cities such as Hanoi and Lang Son have organized drills with the participation of units in the province. In addition, some localities such as Dong Nai, Nam Dinh, Thua Thien-Hue, Can Tho, Quang Ninh are also taking initial steps to prepare for local radiation and nuclear incident response plans.
In order to improve technical capacity to respond to radiation and nuclear incidents, Vietnam has joined the Early Notification Convention and the Assistance Convention; registered contact points in radiation and nuclear incidents.
In addition to disseminating knowledge on incident response and conducting drills on incident response at the national, local and grassroots levels, functional units focus on developing early diagnosis and treatment procedures for radiation diseases...
Currently, Vietnam has established a system to detect radioactive substances in imported goods at Cai Mep port, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, opening the way for equipping radiation control points at border gates, international ports, and large steel processing facilities.
The Department of Radiation and Nuclear Safety said that radiation and nuclear incidents occurring in Vietnam are all related to false source alarms, detection of out-of-control radioactive sources, source jamming, and source drop incidents.
From 2012 to now, there have been 3 radiation incidents in Vietnam and they have been safely handled by the authorities. These are the incident of a uranium radioactive source being abandoned in Bac Lach commune, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province; the incident of a radioactive source being stuck in a well of the Vietnam-Russia Joint Venture (Vietsovpertro) in 2012 and most recently the incident of a radioactive source being discovered at Chieng Sinh Cement Joint Stock Company (Son La province)./.
According to (TTXVN) - VT
