Environmental Radiological Monitoring in Nigeria

Abstract

Environmental Radiological Monitoring in Nigeria The seminar presentation is an insight into the environmental radiological monitoring activities of the NNRA, its present challenges and future plans while offering a general outline of the challenges encountered in monitoring of individuals in an emergency or existing exposure situation which do not pertain to workplace monitoring in a planned exposure situation. According to the IAEA safety glossary, Monitoring is “The measurement of dose or contamination for reasons related to the assessment or control of exposure to radiation or radioactive substance and the interpretation of results”. While existing regulation places sole responsibility of environmental monitoring (Both chemical and Biological) on the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Environment. Radiological monitoring is the responsibility of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority. Also, environmental radiological monitoring is backed by a strong legal framework as embodied in certain legal documents with local and international applications. A good example of such legal groundwork is the Nigerian Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Act, 1995 No. 19, which states in Section 21(3) that, “The Authority may, in issuing the license, impose such terms and conditions which it deems necessary in the interest of health, safety and security. In particular, it may impose conditions relating to monitoring programmes, measures and controls to minimize radiation and "criticality" hazards, limits of radioactive release into the environment, and the qualifications.” Presently there is an ongoing baseline study directed towards setting and improving upon set standards of environmental monitoring which was done in partnership with accredited TSO’s to obtain data in the six regions of Nigeria. As regards individual monitoring, there exists cooperation with some government hospitals to detect and assess internal contamination, but there is a major setback in the area of available equipments and expertise in internal dosimetry systems to man them hence the sad fact that there is no internal dosimetry service provider offering such services within the country. However, major strides are covered with the available equipments, an inventory which includes; Mobile Vehicle-Based Emergency Radiation Monitoring System (MOVERS) ,Personal Dosimeters, alpha detectors and Gamma detectors amongst others. Although, there are some challenges which plague environmental radiological monitoring ranging from low budget funding to submission of data reports on doses, the NNRA hopes in its future plans to overcome these issues in strategic moves that would require finance, manpower and training. Seminar presented by Ekeocha E. Christabel