Development of Road Map Measures to Improve Radioactive Material Detection System Completed

Recently, a coordinating meeting of the IAEA and Ukrainian industry departments on developing the Road Map to improve the architecture of detecting radioactive materials beyond the regulatory control was held in the George Kuzmyсz Center, the Institute for Nuclear Research of the NAS of Ukraine. Representatives of the IAEA Expert Mission, which included experts of the State Security Service of Georgia, regulatory authority of Jordan and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security assisted Ukrainian experts to identify all the strengths and weaknesses in this area in order to find the best application of the Road Map in future.

“Our main task today is to identify all the gaps in the Ukrainian system for detecting radioactive materials beyond the regulatory control and to develop a so-called Road Map or an action plan to get rid of these gaps by joint efforts”, Nuclear Security Officer in the IAEA Nuclear Security Division Stacey Mui said. She also added that the final decision should be taken directly by Ukrainian counterparts; IAEA experts will only provide expert support.

SNRIU Expert Heorhii Svyslotskyi gave a detailed explanation of current Ukrainian system for detecting radioactive materials beyond the regulatory control. “The nuclear security system has three main components: prevention, detection and response. As for me, when developing the Road Map more attention should be paid to responding to cases of radioactive material staying beyond the regulatory control and coordinating cooperation between relevant Ukrainian ministries and departments. In our state, a corresponding coordinating body or coordinating mechanism should be established in this area”, the expert said.

Stacey Mui supported the SNRIU expert, and added that all three components of the system needed a clear interaction. Expert of the State Security Service of Georgia Davyd Makkharadze joined the discussion. “For positive output, the team of detecting radiation materials at all work stages should have the same well coordination of actions as a professional football team”, he concluded.

After an extended discussion, the participants completed developing Road Map main measures. Among them: improvement of the current regulatory framework, detailed analysis of current issues by Ukrainian experts, and development of a strategy for both the near-term and long-term prospect, training of personnel, etc. In addition, the IAEA expressed readiness to amend the current Integrated Nuclear Security Support Program between Ukraine and the IAEA for 2016-2018.
Uatom.org Editorial Board.

Uatom.org Editorial Board