Who Protect Us From Nuclear Contamination

The situation arranged for the demonstration can also happen in real life anytime, said Colonel János Zelenák, Commander of HDF ’Artúr Görgei’ NBC Information Centre in his introduction. In the country there are transports taking place every day, when radioactive substances have to be delivered to health care institutions. In case of an accident of a transport vehicle it may happen that the nuclear substance is spilt in the open air: in such cases the centre has to intervene.

Following the alarm, two sub-units arrived to the scene of the accident. The Sampling Team explored the endangered zone and marked the area that can be accessed in individual protective gear only. They took a sample of the spilt substance and with the help of the Havaria laboratory set deployed at the site, the ‘commander of the scene of the damage’ has concluded his preliminary report on the size of the contaminated area and the possible outlook for radioactivity. To assist him in this activity, he could utilize the regular NBC situation assessment program and the digital database on the computers. The reports on the emerging situation were sent to the Sectoral Information Centres by fax or via the LAN communications channel.

Those who attended the demonstration could see how the Sampling Unit and the troops of the Mobile Assessment Team perform in a contaminated area. The equipments by the help of which an exact picture could be obtained of the amount of radiation and the size of the contaminated area could be defined, have been deployed at the scene.

The demonstration went on in the NBC Information Centre: this is where the pieces of information on the accident were sent and the report was forwarded to the executives of the Disaster Prevention Operative Committee from here. In this case, a 300 m safety zone has been designated where entrance is prohibited until the soldiers complete the decontamination process. The measurements indicated that an area of 150-160 square metres has been polluted, and decontamination was done with a chemical solution and a soil layer of the proper thickness. In the event of such contamination, access to the area is granted only if the radiation value measured at the scene of the accident reaches the value of background radiation. The reports and suggestions are forwarded electronically to those concerned.

The commander of the Information Centre has told us that the data registered by the automatic data collection systems located in various sites all over the country are sent to the centre where the pieces of information are monitored and the NBC situation in Hungary is continuously assessed. This alarm and notification system operates 24 hours a day. Moreover, the centre plays an important part in the chemical protection preparation of the troops going on a mission, and within NATO as well, in the work of the Operational Assessment Team.

Minister of Defence Imre Szekeres, who has also attended the event, thanked for the demonstration, stressing that the activity of the corps is very important as regards the defence of the country. It is essential that the Centre could establish proper cooperation with disaster management  this will be strengthened further in the future by involving new systems. During the informative session, we heard about many things which reinforce it further that in our days, we must be prepared to investigate and report similar events, and to eliminate the consequences  reminded the head of the portfolio. There was even a case when terrorists created a dangerous situation threatening human lives. On the basis of what we have seen, Imre Szekeres assessed that those serving with the corps are prepared to avert an accidental disaster.

The event ended with laying a wreath on the memorial plaque of Artúr Görgei.