In Oct 25-26, 2016, the Steering Committee for Radiation Emergency Response of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province held a seminar on radiation safety and radiation emergency response. Eng. Dinh Chi Hung – Vice Director of the Center for non-destructive Evaluation and Mr. La Truong Giang – Head of the Southern Office - Technical Support Center for Radiation Safety and Emergency Response. Participating in the seminar were more than 70 participant from the Radiation emergency response Steering Committee, representative of provincial departments and agencies, district People’s Committee and major medical centers in the province such as Ba Ria hospital, Le Loi hospital, Vietsovpetro Medical center…

Crude oil, gas, energy, chemical industry are among Ba Ria – Vung Tau’s main industries. The strong socio-economic activities in these areas recently have led to an increasing use of radiation sources and equipment, raising concern over risk of radiation incidents.

According to a report by IAEA in 2013, from 1993 to 2012 there had been 615 cases of loss or stolen radiation sources, meaning a yearly average of 20-40 cases. In Vietnam, in 13 years, there have been 8 incidents of missing radiation sources with a few cases taken in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province. In Dec 2007, one radiation source was dropped at PTSC sea port. In 2008, there was an incident at an offshore oil rig. The most recent one happened in April 2015 at Pomina 3 steel plant where one machine with radiation source was lost. There is an urgent need to enhance state management in radiation and nuclear safety and radiation emergency response in the province.

During the workshop, general knowledge of radiation safety was provide, including concept, origin of ionizing radiation,  ionizing radiation reaction and record; biological and health effects, preventive measure for internal and external radiation; application of radiation in industry and healthcare; Radiation limits and optimizing principle, the measures to prevent the internal and external radiation; systematic review of legal documents on radiation safety management; Provisions to ensure radiation safety, transportation safety of radioactive sources; management activities in radiation safety management and emergency response.

Throughout the workshop, trainees have opportunities to exchange, discuss and share experiences in work safety and radiation incident response. The trainees were also preparing for a provincial rehearsal of emergency response planned to be held in November, 2016.