Grim Reaper and Abandoned Radiation Sources. Video under STEP to Safety Project

An educational video about radiation safety and rules of conduct and response to identified radiation sources was released on 1 September by the Chornobyl Research and Development Institute within the Step for Safety Project.

The video is called “All that glitters is not gold” and is the first in a series to be broadcast by the information resources of Dnipro. It is also freely available on the YouTube website.

The filming location was a real landfill along the road, which has already reached several hectares in size

According to the plot of the video, a person that was passing by was interested in the object that sparkled in the sun among the heaps of garbage. It was a gamma source with the appropriate radioactivity label that someone just threw away. However, someone, not guessing about the real hazard, can decide: I have found something interesting, I will figure it out at home or it will come in handy. This is what the hero of the video did.

“In light of such a simple life situation as finding an unknown object with a sign of radiation hazard, simple rules of conduct and response are presented,” is expressed in the message of the STEP to Safety Project, “Because the consequences can be unpredictable and this unpredictability is presented in an exaggerated form. What are people most afraid of? Death.”

Death in the video appears in the classic image of a figure in a black robe with a scythe, which, however, does not take the person’s life, but gives a simple advice on how to preserve life and health when you find an abandoned radiation source.

The Step to Safety Project is funded by the U.S. Department of State through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and to implement intergovernmental agreements between Ukraine and the United States.