Safety Culture in the News

Safety Culture in the News

Chernobyl: 35 years on

www.dailynews.lk/2021/05/0…

Exactly 35 years ago, on April 26, 1986, the biggest nuclear accident in history took place at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, killing dozens of people and making hundreds of people victims of Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS). Later, the disaster was attributed to a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators. It was a direct consequence of Cold War isolation and the resulting lack of any safety culture in the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe is an ideal occasion to emphasise the imperative need for strict safeguards to prevent any possible nuclear accidents of that nature in future. This is highly applicable to an island nation such as Sri Lanka with large ports providing facilities to international freighter vessels.

Last week, timely detection of radioactive material in a ship docked at the Hambantota Port was ordered to leave immediately, thus avoiding a possible danger to the port or its

Inside the Chernobyl control room now employees. M.V.BBC Naples sailing under the flag of “Antigua and Barbados” entered the Port of Hambantota on April 20, while en route from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to China.