The Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety has proposed the Ministry of Science and Technology amend Circular 23/2010/TT-BKHCN to strengthen the management of radioactive material in the country.

The agency made the proposal after a Cobalt-60 container at Pomina 3 steel mill in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province was found missing a couple of days before.

The agency’s director Vuong Huu Tan said once the amendments are approved, mobile sources of radioactive material would be equipped with GPS devices.

Le Manh Ha, vice chairman of HCMC, has told the city’s Department of Science and Technology to coordinate with the Integrated Circuit Design Research and Education Center (ICDREC) to consider plans to install GPS devices on radioactive material.

Regarding the search for the missing radioactive material of Pomina 3, authorities of the southern province said they had not found it as of last week though the search zone had been expanded to neighboring Dong Nai, HCMC and Binh Duong.

Waste collecting and recycling sites have been searched. The search team is verifying information about a thing like the Cobalt-60 container was seen at Toc Tien garbage dump in Tan Thanh District.

Commenting on the danger of the missing Cobalt-60, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Nhi Dien, director of the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute, said though the radioactive material is kept in a metal container, its gamma rays can go through the container.

Therefore, it is dangerous for those people who stand less than two meters from this radioactive source. If they stand around ten centimeters from the material in one hour, they will be contaminated with a dose of radioactivity 2.6 times higher than the permissible one within a year.

When contaminated with Cobalt-60, one can suffer from skin ulcer, cancer, genetic modification or even die depending on levels of exposure.

Due to high danger, Tan said importing materials with high levels of radioactivity must be licensed by the agency. The departments of science-technology in localities are assigned to check the state of radioactive material and carry out inspections into radioactive material in collaboration with the agency.

However, Tan admitted that due to a lack of manpower, inspections are not conducted every year as required.

Therefore, the main responsibility for supervising, protecting and ensuring safety of radioactive material rests with users. The agency provides training for the user in preserving radioactive material annually.

Regarding the management of nearly 2,000 inactive radioactive sources, Tan said the user has to keep them until they are brought to the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute or the Institute for Technology of Radioactive and Rare Elements for storage. However, in the long term, there should be a national storage site for such radioactive sources.