The search for 45kg of radio-active material missing from an iron mill
in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province will be expanded to the
neighbouring provinces of Dong Nai, Binh Duong and HCM City.
This was announced by the Viet Nam Agency for Radiation and
Nuclear Safety (VARANS) at a meeting yesterday with the province’s
People’s Committee and Pomina Iron Mill 3.
The search will be mainly focused on salvage depots,
industrial waste centres and other steel mills in the region, said Mai
Thanh Quang, head of the search task force and director of the
province’s Department of Science and Technology.
A task force also asked iron mill workers to help search waste depots and offer tips on where the missing materials may be.
At a press conference on Saturday, two Government official
admitted that the control of radio-active materials in Viet Nam had not
been given proper attention.
The head of the Government Office, Nguyen Van Nen, and
Deputy minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said this was
demonstrated by the fact that radio-active material has gone missing.
The material is believed to have been missing for up to three months before its loss was discovered.
It contained low-level radio-active Cobalt-60 that,
according to VARANS, does not pose risks to human life unless there is
long-term exposure
Anh said the steel-maker, Pomina must be held responsible
for the loss of the material. Local authorities and agencies also must
take responsibility for failing to enforce the regulations.
He said Viet Nam had a number of safety regulations that
required radio-active substances to be registered, supervised and
managed by responsible parties.
“We failed to take pro-active steps to prevent such an
incident from happening. Various ministries are working together to make
policy adjustments for the improvement of State’s control over nuclear
and radio-active substances,” Anh said.
Minister Nen said further steps would be taken to improve
control and security. The Ministry of Public Security has the job of
detecting and stopping illegal possession of radio-active material – and
preventing it from being smuggled or stockpiled.
Mobile radio-active apparatus, which includes equipment,
appliances or other things that are portable and classed as
radio-active, are to be equipped with GPS tracking devices.
Last September, the HCM City Apave Asia-Pacific Company
reported that it had lost a radio-active device, which was later found
after a four-day search.
VNS