Nanjing: A new regulation on radioactive pollution prevention and control will be established next year in East China's Jiangsu Province, local environmental protection authorities announced recently.

According to Liu Jianlin, head of the Management Department for Nuclear Safety and Radioactivity under the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau (JEPB), more than 4,000 organizations and companies in the province now use radioactive technology or equipment, and 1,000 of them own radioactive energy sources.

Of the 8,071 radioactive energy sources found in the province so far, 7,502 are still in use, while 569 have been suspended.

The number of radioactive energy sources is increasing at a speed of 10 to 15 per cent every year as demand grows for the nuclear technology, said Liu during a seminar on radioactivity control last week in Nanjing.

"Due to the imperceptibility of the hidden risks of nuclear radiation, and the imperfect management of radioactive energy sources, there is an urgent need for specific regulations in the field to ensure the safety of the environment and human health," said Yao Xiaoqing, deputy director of the JEPB.

According to Yao, the new regulation aims to regulate organizations and companies involved in nuclear and electromagnetic radioactive energy usage in public security and for industrial, agricultural, scientific and medical use.

The regulation, which is currently being drafted by experts in the field, will be sent to the local people's congress by the end of this year and will come into effect next year.

As one of several provinces that consume and house the largest quantity of radioactive energy sources and equipment in the country, the majority of the sources detected in Jiangsu have already been brought within the national safety standard, according to Yao.

Both Suzhou and Nanjing, home to about half the radioactive energy sources in the province, have already set up their nuclear safety and radioactivity supervisory administrative centres to watch over their radioactive energy sources.

And the province's storage bank for abandoned radioactive energy sources has brought more than 1,000 of them under control since it was put into operation in 1995.

The province has launched a campaign to improve the professionalism of staff directly involved in the production, export and import, sale, use, transport, storage and disposal of radiation sources, promoting safety awareness and providing training and examinations.

To better supervise radioactive energy sources, the province requires producers to code each source to make it traceable after being sold.

JEPB staff said that coding makes it easier for officials to trace missing radioactive energy sources that are stolen and sold on.

(China Daily 08/14/2006 page3)