People in Bac Kan Province are worried after radioactive material disappeared from the Bac Kan Cement Company.
The lost radioactive material
Bac Kan Cement Company’s property had been seized in order to pay off bank debts. In May, 2015, the Bank for Investment and Development of Bac Kan Province was asked to manage the radioactive materials. Bac Kan Cement Company was asked to relocate the material to a safe place.
In December, Bac Kan Cement Company's legal representative, Dinh Van Bang, announced that the material had gone missing.
After receiving the news, the provincial police, the Department of Science and Technology and Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety collaborated to search for the material but yielded no results. No anomalous radioactive values were recorded near the company or at any suspected locations.
Le Van The, deputy head of the Department of Science and Technology, said the material, labelled Cs-137, was used to measure cement clinker. He issued an assurance that this material was not harmful to people.
Last year, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved Decree 17 on increased security measures to manage and control radioactive devices in the country after several incidents where radioactive material apparently went missing. There are approximately 1,920 radioactive sources across 170 facilities in Hanoi and 1,200 in HCM City.
In 2014, the HCM City Apave Asia-Pacific Company reported that it had lost track of a radioactive device, which was recovered after a four-day search.
In April last year, 45 kilos of radioactive material went missing from the Pomina steel mill in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. It was never recovered.
