Laboratory for radiation monitoring of the environment to be  established in Armenia

ArmInfo. A laboratory for radiation monitoring of the environment will be established in Armenia.

At the meeting on August 27, the RA government gave the go-ahead for  the signing of an agreement with the European Commission "On  promoting nuclear safety culture".

In a conversation with the ArmInfo correspondent, Chairman of the  State Committee for Nuclear Safety Regulation of the Republic of  Armenia Ashot Martirosyan said that the European Commission will  assist in the creation of the laboratory. The assistance will include  the provision of equipment, training and retraining of personnel, and  the involvement of leading foreign experts. In this case, as Ashot  Martirosyan noted, there is no talk of any financial assistance, the  assistance will be of a technical nature. It was originally planned  that the laboratory would be located in the Argavand area along  Admiral Isakov Street, but later it was decided that the new  monitoring object would be located on a part of the territory of the  National Scientific Laboratory named after A. A.I. Alikhanyan  (Institute of Physics).

According to the government decision, the basis for creating a  laboratory for radiation monitoring of the environment is the  fulfillment of the requirements of the legislative acts of the  Republic of Armenia. The purpose of its creation is to improve the  system of professional monitoring of the environment, personnel,  emergency response, radiation sources, which, in turn, will increase  the level of radiation safety on the territory of the republic,  ensuring the radiation safety of the population and specialists.

A radiation laboratory of the environment on the territory of the  Republic of Armenia is necessary to assess the radioactive  contamination of soil, air, water, food, building materials, to  ensure professional control of personnel, workplaces at facilities  using radiation sources to ensure radiation monitoring of these  sources, to identify orphan sources of radiation. The implementation  of the program will allow the RA Nuclear Safety Regulatory Committee  to carry out activities on radiation monitoring of the environment in  accordance with the best European practice and international  standards.

The State Committee for Nuclear Safety Regulation carries out state  regulation of the field of atomic energy use in order to ensure the  safety of the population and personnel, protect the environment and  the security interests of the Republic of Armenia.