NAVY HYGIENIST YU. N. PETROV: THE CALL OF DUTY AND THE COURSE OF CREATIVITY

Abstract

The paper sheds light on several episodes in the life of Yuri Nikolayevich Petrov, Candidate of Medical Sciences, navy doctor, radiation hygienist, veteran of the Department of Navy and Radiation Hygiene of S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy, the author of dozens of inventions and innovation proposals. Many of navy hygienists in Russia esteem Yu. N. Petrov as their tutor. The principal features of his personality have ever been independence in thought, invariable adherence to principles, exclusive modesty, and outstanding benevolence. His life-long motto is the following phase taken from his autobiographic essay: «In any routine, it is possible and essential to find its interesting aspects and thus make it fascinating. Ever since, the routine turns into pleasure and life becomes wonderful». The highlights of his professional activities include involvement in the liquidation of the consequences of K-8 submarine wreck (13.10.1960), the detection of radioactive cloud after nuclear tests in China (1968), the discovery of a foreign nuclear submarine beneath the aircraft-carrying cruiser Minsk, involvement in radiation control during the first trips of soviet nuclear submarines and in associated studies of internal irradiation in humans, involvement in developing and implementing of systems for environmental radiation control at facilities having terrestrial nuclear reactors, studies of on-board water decontamination, and, after retirement, fifteen years of practice in the sphere of consumer rights protection.