Every Employee is an Important Component of Enterprise Physical Protection

This topic was discussed during one of the sessions of the XIII Ukrainian Conference on Physical Protection, Control and Accounting of Nuclear Materials.

The event was held from 3 to 7 October in Netishyn, Khmelnytsk Oblast, under the auspices of the George Kuzmycz Training Center for Physical Protection, Control and Accounting of Nuclear Material supported by the Swedish Radiation Safety Agency, Norwegian Agency for Radiation Protection and Energoatom Company.

“Each nuclear enterprise shall have a balanced information policy. Awareness of personnel of what information is official and shall not be disclosed in any case, and what information is open and there is no threat if it is disclosed, including social media, is of a great importance”, sais Jan Soderman, representative of the Swedish Radiation Safety Agency (SSM).

There are many aspects to be considered at nuclear facilities. It is prohibited to capture a lot of facilities and territories on camera. Sometimes, it is very difficult to explain this to active youth who will stop at nothing for vivid posts in social networks.

“The management shall give instructions to the employees. At an affordable, mild form it shall communicate with the youth to explain that work at nuclear installations is very important. Everyone is personally responsible for physical safety. Ideally, the enterprise shall have the approved official document with detailed principles of information policy. From time to time, the management has to check whether there are violations and how responsible are employees in fulfilling their duties. Yet, supervision shall be appropriate with no psychological pressure. It is very important to maintain a balance”, said Jan Soderman to the audience.

According to the Swedish expert, coordinated work of personnel at nuclear facilities and installation of Ukraine under conditions of hybrid warfare is very significant. “Teamwork matters a lot. Without interaction, there will be no result. In case of emergencies, it is important to know whom to contact on a particular issue, how to act, how to get a feedback. Actually, all these things together make a well-balanced information policy of the enterprise”, concluded the SSM representative. He added that Ukraine lacks public information events on physical protection of nuclear material.

Uatom.org Editorial Board