Withdrawal of Radioactive Materials from Illicit Trafficking in Third Quarter 2017

In the third quarter of 2017, SNRIU in cooperation with other central executive bodies of Ukraine responsible for revealing and responding to illicit trafficking of radioactive materials continued withdrawal of hazardous radioactive materials beyond regulatory control.

Citizens of Ukraine continue sending abroad (by Ukrposhta post offices) different items such as watches, altimeters, etc., containing salts of radium-226 that significantly exceed the equivalent dose rate.

A sample of rock in a niche carved in the Children’s Bible was revealed in a parcel.

Such items are withdrawn and transferred for further safe storage to specialized plants of Radon Corporation. Similar souvenirs with an excess of radium-226 were withdrawn at the airports of Lviv and Kyiv (Boryspil airport).

There are cases of withdrawal of radiation sources from scrap metal supplied to metallurgical plants. Thus, at the end of September, a RIO-3 radioisotope ice-detecting device containing strontium-90 + yttrium-90 was revealed during the incoming radiation inspection of scrap metal at the Azovstal Iron & Steel Works. In Kherson seaport, a part of metal pipe with significant excess of the regulated values was withdrawn from a scrap metal batch to be sent to Turkey.

A tripod level gage for a military device containing radium-226 salts was withdrawn from a car trunk of a Ukrainian citizen at Novotroitsk entry/exit checkpoint at the entrance to Ukraine.

All withdrawn hazardous items were transferred for further safe storage to State Interregional Specialized Plants of Radon Corporation.

According to SNRIU