In June 2012 the European Commission (Development and Co-operation General Directorate - EuropeAid) started with the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU), the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) and the Ukrainian State Scientific and Technical Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SSTC-NRS) a project to strengthen the SNRIU capabilities in regulatory activities related to independent radiation monitoring using the mobile laboratory delivered earlier in 2010 to Ukraine by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), STUK and the Finnish company Environics Oy.

The project focused on use of the mobile radiological laboratory RanidSONNI in security activities performed during the UEFA Football Championship EURO 2012 in Kiev between 8 June and 1 July 2012, in implementation of the international generic principles for security arrangements for Major Public Events (MPE) in Ukraine, in radiation survey of two medical institutions in Kiev (Clinical Hospital "Feofania" and Kiev Regional Oncology Hospital), and to perform radiation survey of populated areas around uranium mining and processing facilities in Ukraine (Novokonstantinovskaya mine in Kirovohrad region).

The mobile radiological laboratory RanidSONNI is capable of monitoring environmental radiation dose rate, to detect abnormal radiation sources in the environment, to collect radioactive elements in outdoor air, to take different environmental samples and to analyze the composition of radioactivity in air and the collected samples, and to transfer the results to the SSTC NRS headquarters in real time mode. The main tasks of the RanidSONNI laboratory are:

•       monitoring of radiation situation around radiation-hazardous facilities (NPPs, research reactors, uranium mining and processing enterprises etc.) at all stages of their life-cycle,

•      search, identification and preliminary categorization of orphan ionizing radiation sources, and radiation sources that can be out of regulatory control due to natural disaster, emergency situations etc.,

•       radiation monitoring for early detection of radiation sources in places of big mass events, like EURO 2012,

•      support of regional state nuclear and radiation safety inspectorates under surveys of radiation- hazardous facilities.

All the planned activities were performed successfully and the project strengthened the positive experiences gained during several years in cooperation between the Ukrainian and Finnish authorities in radiation protection and nuclear safety. Safety of people who attended the UEFA Championship EURO- 2012 finals in Kiev against possible health hazards of malicious use of radiation was secured successfully, and the pilot radiation surveys in the two hospitals and in surroundings of Novokonstantinovskaya mine enhanced capability of SNRIU and SSTC-NRS to perform radiation monitoring and regulatory inspections, and provided the wide public informing about the radiation state of territories.

Additional information from:

Mr. Viktor Riazantsev, Head of Radiation Safety Department - State inspector Виктор Рязанцев, [email protected], +38044-254-34-51

Mr. Oleg Petrenko, Deputy Head of International Projects Department Олег Петренко, ov [email protected], +38044-422-49-61