International Safety Standards Research Articles

Determination of maritime safety performance of flag states based on the Port State Control inspections using TOPSIS

It is the responsibility of flag states to ensure that ships flying their flags are operated according to the international maritime safety standards. There are more than 200 flag states whose fleet characteristics differ from each other. The performances of flag states across all Port State Control (PSC) regimes reflect their level of deficiencies as related to maritime safety standards. In this respect, the measurement of their maritime safety performance is an important issue for identifying the maritime safety level of the world trade fleet. However, there is no standard method to determine flag state performance within the PSC regime due to variations between regimes. In this context, this study aims to assess the maritime safety performance of flag states based on the PSC inspections. The performance of each flag state is determined depending on both its detentions and deficiencies in the PSC regimes. All flag states that are listed in the PSC regimes are grouped according to the performance levels employing clustering analysis. Towards this aim, the performance in each PCS regime is determined using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and then their overall performance is calculated based on these performances. Accordingly, the performance in each PCS regime of flag states is discussed in terms of maritime safety, thus the maritime safety level of the world trade fleet is identified. The results show that nearly half of the flag states have sub-standard overall performance levels. TOPSIS is proposed as the standard method for measuring flag states performance in the scope of harmonization of PSC regimes.

Developing Clinical Care Programs: Experience from a Colombian Clinical Center.

Abstract Nowadays, continuous improvement in health organizations is a key determinant for enhancing the quality of care and clinical outcomes. In this article, we describe step by step the development of clinical care centers in accordance with international medical guidelines and safety standards in a Latin American country. We believe that the implementation of clinical care centers benefits the pursuit of promoting the quadruple aim: patient care, population health, cost-effectiveness and value in the provider experience.

Aviation Safety International Standards in the Framework of National Air Law

Expansion of aviation is not achievable without regulating and improving air safety worldwide. Air safety in aviation has always been associated with approving and implementing national and international laws, regulations and standards. The international aviation community has approved uniform safety regulations under treaties, bilateral agreements, and internationally required standards. The international civil aviation organization (ICAO) is continuously updating standards following the development of aviation technologies. However, implementing international air safety standards involves compliance with and implementation of the regulations by the states in their air transportation. With the adoption and updating of international air standards of ICAO, do the member states comply with them? Member States are not in the same status regarding the development of the aviation industry. Various political, economic, and technical factors impede countries' correct and appropriate implementation of standards. Hence, the member countries should obtain a legal method so that the international technical air standards in their aviation industry become mandatory. However, they should adopt these standards under national law and harmonize them with international air standards. Formulating them under national law is the preferred way to comply with these uniform international safety standards. To accomplish this, the relevant national legal and regulatory infrastructure for air regulations should be established in all states. The author first explains the theoretical and practical basis of developing comprehensive international aviation safety standards and then describes the mechanism and process of approving these standards in the framework of the national code.

Safety-Oriented System Hardware Architecture Exploration in Compliance with ISO 26262

Safety-critical intelligent automotive systems require stringent dependability while the systems are in operation. Therefore, safety and reliability issues must be addressed in the development of such safety-critical systems. Nevertheless, the incorporation of safety/reliability requirements into the system will raise the design complexity considerably. Furthermore, the international safety standards only provide guidelines and lack concrete design methodology and flow. Therefore, developing an effective safety process to assist system engineers in tackling the complexity of system design and verification, while also satisfying the requirements of international safety standards, has become an important and valuable research topic. In this study, we propose a safety-oriented system hardware architecture exploration framework, which incorporates fault tree-based vulnerability analysis with safety-oriented system hardware architecture exploration to rapidly discover an efficient solution that complies with the ISO-26262 safety requirements and hardware overhead constraint. A failure mode, effect, and diagnostic analysis (FMEDA) report is generated after performing the exploration framework. The proposed framework can facilitate the system engineers in designing, assessing, and enhancing the safety/robustness of a system in a cost-effective manner.

Derivation of a new dose constraint applicable to radioactive discharges from Korean nuclear power plants through retrospective dose assessment

A new methodology to derive a dose constraint for radioactive effluent from a unit of nuclear power plant (NPP) through retrospective assessment was developed to reflect operational flexibility in line with international standards. The new dose constraint can retain the safety margin between the offsite dose and the past dose constraints. As case studies, the new approach was applied to 24 Korean NPPs to address the limitations of the existing seven dose constraints that do not fully comply with current international radiation protection standards. Therefore, an effective dose constraint for Korean NPPs was proposed as no less than 0.15 mSv/y, which is comparable to the international practices and previous studies (0.05–0.3 mSv/y). Although the lower bound of the equivalent dose constraint was calculated as 0.17 mSv/y, it is not proposed in this study since the compliance with the derived effective dose constraint can prevent accompanied equivalent doses to any organs from exceeding equivalent dose limits. The new framework and the case studies are expected to contribute toward and support the revision of existing dose constraints for radioactive effluent from NPPs, ensuring better compliance with the current international safety standards as well as reflect the operational flexibility in practice.

Practical application of international recommendations and safety standards in the systematic planning and implementation of remediation of sites or areas with residual radioactive material

The IAEA fundamental safety objective is ‘to protect people and the environment from harmful effects of ionizing radiation’ and this must be done ‘without unduly limiting the operation of facilities or the conduct of activities that give rise to radiation risks’, while ensuring that people and the environment, present and future are protected against radiation risks (IAEA 2006 Fundamental Safety Principles, Safety Fundamentals No. SF-1). In addition, ‘protective actions to reduce existing or unregulated radiation risks must be justified and optimized’ (IAEA 2006 Fundamental Safety Principles, Safety Fundamentals No. SF-1). An international system of radiological protection can be applied such that processes, such as remediation, can be systematically undertaken to address the wide range of ‘existing exposure situations’ present globally. In doing so, decisions made regarding actions undertaken can be demonstrated to be ‘justified’ and ‘optimized’ (i.e. balanced), such that the amount of effort should be commensurate with the risk (applying a ’graded approach’). In addition, protection of people and the environment can be demonstrated by comparing the actual exposure to appropriate criteria over the lifetime of remediation. This paper provides an overview of the current IAEA safety standards on remediation of sites or areas contaminated with residual radioactive material within the international system of radiological protection and provides practical examples of their application through case studies considered in IAEA international model validation programs.

P 67 Satisfaction with and reliability of in-hospital video-electroencephalography monitoring systems in epilepsy diagnosis among German epilepsy centers

Introduction: Video-electroencephalography monitoring (VEM) is the current gold standard for in-hospital epilepsy diagnosis as well as for the diagnostics of many other paroxysmal and recurrent neurological symptoms. Consequently, high-performance VEM systems (VEMS) have become indispensable for performing modern in-hospital differential and presurgical epilepsy diagnostics. As a central diagnostic tool and interface between technology and doctors, VEMS also represent a relevant safety factor in inpatient diagnostics. Recently, complaints about malfunctions of VEMS have been reported repeatedly, some of which hinder the clinical diagnosis of epilepsy patients. Therefore, we investigated the reliability of, customer satisfaction with and potential for improvement of the VEMS used in German epilepsy centres. Materials and Methods: Between December 2020 and January 2021, a survey was conducted among German epilepsy centres. Using a short questionnaire including established business to customer metrics, such as the Net Promoter Score, the Customer Satisfaction Score, the Customer Effort Score and the Things Gone Wrong Metric, the reliability, customer satisfaction and potential for general or specific improvements of VEMS were accessed without aiming to compare individual manufacturers or systems in detail. Results: A total of 16 of 27 contacted epilepsy centres (59%) participated in the survey. Customer satisfaction with VEMS was low with only 13 % of clients that would actively recommend their system to other clinicians or epileptologists. Only 50 % of users were satisfied with the overall performance of their VEMS, and only 18 % were satisfied with the manufacturer's after-sales service. Major software or hardware problems were reported in the diagnostic of approximately every 10th patient. Common problem areas mentioned were the VEMS user interface, the stability of software, a shortage of regular updates and a lack of customer-oriented improvements. The greatest potential for improvement was found in software and hardware stability as well as in customer service. Conclusion: As far as it can reasonably be assessed from this German multicenter survey, the level of satisfaction among German epilepsy centres regarding their VEMS is soberingly low. This unsatisfaction seems to be mainly based on frequent and sometimes serious malfunctions of hardware and software on the one hand and a subjective dissatisfaction with the manufacturer’s aftermarket customer service on the other hand. The fact that on average the diagnosis of every 10th patient is hampered by hardware or software problems should be an alarming sign, regardless of the general satisfaction with VEMS. Besides the obvious potential for improvement, there is an urgent need for national and international functional and safety standards for VEMS.

The Japan Health Physics Society Guideline on Dose Monitoring for the Lens of the Eye

Background: In Japan, new regulations that revise the dose limit for the lens of the eye (hereafter the lens), operational quantities, and measurement positions for the lens dose were enforced in April 2021. Based on the international safety standards, national guidelines, the results of the Radiation Safety Research Promotion Fund of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, and other studies, the Working Group of Radiation Protection Standardization Committee, the Japan Health Physics Society (JHPS) developed a guideline for radiation dose monitoring for the lens.Materials and Methods: The Working Group of the JHPS discussed the criteria of non-uniform exposure and the management criteria set not to exceed the dose limit for the lens.Results and Discussion: In July 2020, the JHPS guideline was published. The guideline consists of three parts: main text, explanations, and 26 examples. In the questions, the corresponding answers were prepared, and specific examples were provided to enable similar cases to be addressed.Conclusion: With the development of the guideline on radiation dose monitoring of the lens, radiation managers and workers will be able to smoothly comply with revised regulations and optimize radiation protection.

Pre-Conceptual Design of the Research High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor TeResa for Non-Electrical Applications

In line with Polish national activities and research programs investigating non-electrical-reactor use, the national GOSPOSTRATEG-HTR project was launched, aiming at the development of a novel pre-conceptual design of a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR). The 40 MWth research reactor would serve as a technology demonstrator for future industrial purposes. In the paper, the proposal of an established thermal-hydraulic and neutronic core design is presented as a result of the National Centre for Nuclear Research team studies, in the scope of the project, including the areas of fluid mechanics, heat exchange and reactor neutronic core design support analyses. The undertaken analyses were confirmed by the series of code investigations involving integral thermal-hydraulic (MELCOR (Sandia National Laboratories, USA), CATHARE (CEA, France)), neutronic (Serpent (VTT, Finland), MCB (AGH University’s Department of Nuclear Energy, Poland)), Computational Fluid Dynamics (ANSYS Fluent (ANSYS, USA)) and others. The calculations performed within the preliminary safety analysis on the pre-concept showed its compliance with international safety standards for the normal operation and Design Basis Accident sequences.

Assessment of the impact of irrigation with treated wastewater at different dilutions on growth, quality parameters and contamination transfer in strawberry fruits and soil: Health risk assessment

Industrial treated wastewater (TWW) could be an attractive alternative fto fresh water use in agriculture due to the shortage in water resource especially in the Mediterranean region. Furthermore, TWW could represent an efficient substitute for crop production thanks to its high load in nutrient. However, its high content of salts or mineral as well as organic pollutants can affect the crop safety, productivity and growth. A simple way to reduce the amount of chloride and salinity could be the dilution. In this study the irrigation of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa cv Camarosa) using diluted TWW at three dilution ratios; D60 (40% TWW) D40 and D20 was performed and compared with the well water (WW) used as control. The use of TWW for the irrigation of strawberry plants was done for the first time in the city of Sfax located in the southeast of Tunisia.D20 registered the lowest strawberry yield and highest heavy metal contents in fruits compared to the other dilutions. Also, this dilution showed a toxic effect of high accumulation of chlorine, salts and metals by the apparition of brown edges in the leaves. However, D60 recorded the lowest soil salinity, the high plant growth and strawberry yield compared to the WW irrigated plants and showed lowest metal contents in soil, plants and fruits compared to other dilutions. Our study suggests the use of 60% diluted TWW for the irrigation of strawberry in order to obtain fruits matching international safety and quality standards.

Grain Crop Production as Guaranty of Food Safety of China

The given article analyses the present state of grain farming of the PRC and its contribution to the food security of the country. The food security is the basis for supplying of 1.4 bln. population of the country with food, maintaining social stability, achieving sustainable economical growth and provision of national security. PRC achieved remarkable results in the field of food safety. For the 70 years passed from the formation of the PRC thanks to the efforts of the government and the agricultural laborers China made a prominent historical step from the period of malnutrition to the period of fullness. The article analyses major points in the food safety policy of China for the last 10 years. Starting from the XVIIIth CPC congress Chinese government paid more attention to the food safety problem. At the XIXth CPC congress a new concept of the food safety was formulated. It stated the quality and safety of food and greater variety of food assortment as major criteria. The XXth CPC set new goals for the solution of the food safety problem. From the beginning of the year 2020 to the autumn of 2022 due to the series of events the topic of food safety became more sensitive not only in China but around the world as well. But despite of the stated difficulties China significantly surpassed international standards of food safety in 2021. The most important and priority link in the chain of food safety is the grain self-sufficiency. The given article covers the situation on 3 major grain crops grown in China: rice, wheat and corn and investigates the reasons led to the grain consumption structure changes of the last 20 years.

Quality of poultry meat as a basis of export potential of the meat products

The purpose of the article was to study the quality as a basis for the export potential of Ukrainian meat products and to determine the conditions for its improvement. The following methods were used: abstract-logical; monographic; comparative analysis; statistical; tabular. The results of the research show that the problem of quality assurance of both agricultural products in general and poultry meat in particular is most relevant in both domestic and foreign markets. It covers all participants in the food chain “production-processing-sale-consumption”. Product quality is the main factor in the stable development of production and ensures the export of domestic products. It is established that the production of poultry meat in Ukraine fully meets domestic demand and has reserves for export. It is substantiated that the recognition and provision of competitive advantages in the international and domestic markets can be achieved only by those enterprises that implement international standards of product quality and safety, constantly upgrade technological equipment, introduce new technologies and have highly qualified personnel, create their own feed and raw materials processing.

СОЦІАЛЬНА ВІДПОВІДАЛЬНІСТЬ ТУРИСТИЧНОГО БІЗНЕСУ В УКРАЇНІ: ОСОБЛИВОСТІ СТАНОВЛЕННЯ ТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ РОЗВИТКУ

The article examines the areas of social responsibility implementation in the tourism business of Ukraine. Its characteristic features are the one-time or periodic participation of tourism business entities in individual socio-ecological activities, charity, sponsorship or volunteering, short-term partnership or participation in the implementation of individual short-term projects, individual development of strategies or programs of corporate social responsibility. In the practice of implementing CSR in Ukrainian tourism, responsible behavior is demonstrated by companies that work under the names of well-known international brands, or are representatives of national tourism businesses that have entered the international market, and for which CSR is a mandatory condition for cooperation with partners and clients. Examples and main directions of social programs implemented by domestic tourism enterprises are given. On the basis of the conducted analysis, a conclusion was made about low social activity at the enterprises of the tourism industry of Ukraine, the absence of a monitoring and control mechanism for the implementation of the measures. Among the main problems of low social activity of the tourism business, the high cost of CSR activities, low culture of social entrepreneurship, lack of understanding of the strategic advantages of socially responsible management, reluctance to integrate social and environmental issues into the business processes of one's enterprise are highlighted. The study of successful examples of national and international experience in the implementation of the CSR strategy in tourism made it possible to identify promising areas of socially responsible activities of tourism industry enterprises: responsibility to employees, responsibility to clients, partners and the public, environmental responsibility. A proposed system of long-term initiatives for the gradual introduction of corporate social responsibility into the tourism business in Ukraine. Such initiatives should be implemented through a transparent and honest policy towards tourists, fair treatment of staff, consideration of ethical principles by all participants in the creation of the value chain, compliance with international and national standards of service and safety.

Влияние неопределённости доз на оценку радиационных рисков неонкологической смертности среди российских участников ликвидации последствий аварии на Чернобыльской АЭС

Currently, the system of standards and rules of radiation protection considers the need to con-straint the absorbed radiation doses in order to prevent the development of deterministic effects of ionizing radiation on humans. Deterministic effects in terms of mortality include bone marrow syndrome with a dose threshold of 1 Gy, gastrointestinal syndrome and pneumonitis with dose thresholds of 6 Gy. For inclusion in international radiation safety standards, a threshold of 0.5 Gy for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is being discussed. The wide experience of ra-diation-epidemiological studies shows that the deterministic effects of mortality are not limited to those effects that are currently considered in the system of standards and rules of radiation pro-tection. This paper presents estimates of radiation risks of mortality from diseases of the circula-tory system (CSD) and the digestive system, as well as dose thresholds corresponding to these effects, in the Russian cohort of liquidators of the Chernobyl accident registered in the National Radiation and Epidemiological Register (NRER), who have registered doses from external whole-body exposure to gamma radiation within 1 Gy. The risks were estimated over the follow-up peri-od 1986-2020. The stability of estimated radiation risks of mortality from CSD and from the di-gestive system diseases in relation to the uncertainty of personal doses received by liquidators has been studied. The absorbed doses received by 11% of the liquidators were estimated from the data of personal dosimeters, the maximum error was about 50%. For the remaining 89% of liquidators, group and route doses were registered, and the maximum uncertainty of individual doses was about 500%. For CSD mortality, the excess relative rates per 1 Gy (ERR/Gy) were 0.361 and 0.349, excluding and considering dose uncertainties, respectively. For mortality from diseases of the digestive system, ERR/Gy=0,791 excluding dose uncertainty and ERR/Gy=0,726 with considering dose uncertainty. Uncertainties in individual dose estimates result in 5% and 8% reductions in ERR/Gy estimates (for CSD mortality and digestive disease, respectively). This re-duction in risk estimates is not related to a bias in the dose estimates. It is caused by the statistical properties of radiation risk models in conventional radiation epidemiology. If the excessive mor-tality from the studied causes is attributed to deterministic effects, then the estimates of the corre-sponding dose thresholds, considering the uncertainty of individual doses, also increase quite slightly: for CSD – from 0,028 Gy to 0,029 Gy, and for diseases of the digestive system – from 0,013 Gy to 0,014 Gy. The obtained results confirm the high stability and validity of radiation risk assessments of non-oncological diseases obtained earlier from the doses of Russian partici-pants in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident registered in the unified federal database of the NRER.

Effect of melaleuca biochar on the growth of water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica Forsk)

Experiments on the effects of melaleuca biochar on the growth of water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica Forsk) under net conditions were conducted at Can Tho University. In the light of these, melaleuca biochar has been adsorbed with nutrients from biogas and utilized in various dosages as a chemical fertilizer replacement for water spinach. Water spinach plants were fertilized with a combination of 25% chemical fertilizers and melaleuca biochar, which absorbed nutrients from biogas. As a result, when compared to chemical fertilizer treatment, they achieved the highest value in terms of plant height (38.6 cm), an average number of leaves (10 leaves), fresh biomass (16.23 g pot-1), and dry biomass (1.21 g pot-1). Furthermore, the nitrate concentration of the vegetable in (NT5) met international quality and safety standards (FAO/WHO, 2002). Henceforth, using melaleuca biochar with chemical fertilizers was able to boost crop productivity is a realistic choice.

MODERN SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (Part 2. Safety indicators of control systems)

Purpose: Analysis and determination of the main modern international safety requirements that must be met in the design, development and operation of industrial equipment management systems, as well as confirmation of the need for further improvement of the domestic regulatory framework in this area. Methodology/approach: Performed analysis of the requirements of modern international standards (IEC 62061 and IEC 61508) on the safety of electrical, electronic and programmable electronic control systems for industrial equipment and the existing sequence of protection against hazards; the algorithm of step-by-step realization of control systems and the basic features of the organization of their structures at the level of functional blocks and subsystems for maintenance of necessary level of completeness of functional safety are defined; the peculiarities of the process of design and development of each of the subsystems and the algorithm of its execution are analyzed; defined algorithms for estimating the probability of dangerous accidental hardware failures for the recommended basic architecture of subsystems (type A, B, C and D) and for the control system itself; provided recommendations on the composition of the specification of safety requirements in the design of control systems; reviewed software requirements. Conclusions: The analysis of the features of functioning and application of modern international safety standards, which must be observed in the design, development and operation of industrial equipment management systems convincingly confirms the relevance and need for further improvement of domestic regulations in this area. Research results: Modern requirements for the organization of the control system structure at the level of functional units and subsystems to ensure the required level of completeness of functional safety of electrical, electronic and programmable electronic control systems for industrial equipment are determined, as well as features of application the of algorithms for estimating the probability of dangerous accidental failures of control systems and their subsystems. Practical implications: The development and implementation of relevant national standards based on IEC 62061 and IEC 61508 should accelerate the further development of technical progress in Ukraine in the field of industrial safety. Originality/value: Defining the main features of the functioning of modern international safety standards, which must be observed in the design, development and operation of industrial equipment control systems; Appropriate recommendations for their practical application are provided; Substantiated and confirmed the relevance and importance of the development of relevant harmonized national standards based on the standards IEC 62061 and IEC 61508.

Evaluation of Food Trucks' Hygiene During Mass Gathering Events.

During any event, food- and waterborne diseases represent a health risk, so food should be kept in a chilled state while being supplied in the trucks before distribution to consumers. The study aimed to evaluate temperature conditions, microbial contamination of food trucks, and their compliance to the basic local and international standards of food safety during a mass gathering event (pilgrimage). Fifty food trucks were evaluated for proper food storing and microbial contamination (load). A food truck inspection checklist was made to check if the trucks followed the standards of food safety and hygiene. The results showed that 90% of the trucks’ refrigerators were between 3 and 5°C. The number of total mesophilic and psychrotrophic bacteria in the contact surfaces varied between 1.93-6.16 (mean 4.0433) and 0.08-4.50 (mean 3.3340) log CFU (colony-forming units)/100 cm2, respectively. The studied food trucks met the standards of food safety and hygiene with a low mean level (45.2%), which was seen in monitoring thermometers/cold chain loggers, proper record of activities, proper disposal of food product waste, and proper practice of handwashing techniques. There were significant associations (p-value < 0.05) found between temperature readings and mesophilic microbial load. Efforts should be increased to reduce food loss by continuous monitoring of these trucks during mass gathering events.

ПРОГНОЗНАЯ ОЦЕНКА ПОСЛЕДСТВИЙ ТЯЖЕЛОЙ АВАРИИ НА БЕЛОРУССКОЙ АЭС ДЛЯ ЗДОРОВЬЯ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ

The article presents the results of assessment of the levels of emergency radionuclide discharge, gamma dose rates, radionuclide fallout, as well as the prognosis of public exposure doses to the population of Belarus as a result of a possible severe nuclear accident at the Belarusian NPP. It was found that, in the case of a severe nuclear accident at the Belarusian NPP with total activity of the accidental release of 4.5∙1015 Bq, the transfer of radioactive contamination to a distance up to 100 km from the site under various meteorological scenarios, will be less than 2 hours. The total contamination density of the territory with 131I and 137Сs isotopes within 100 km radius around the Belarusian NPP will be less than 29 kBq/m2 (0.78 Ci/km2) and less than 5.6 kBq/m2 (0.15 Ci/km2) respectivelly. Maximum value of the thyroid dose will be up to 93.8 mSv, and of the effective dose – 2.86 mSv. Based on the obtained results, the justification for public protective measures was made and recommendations were given for conducting emergency radiation monitoring, taking into account international recommendations and national radiation safety standards of the Republic of Belarus.

O PROBLEMA DA POLUIÇÃO POR ÓLEO ORIUNDO DE NAVIOS NAS ÁGUAS DE JURISDIÇÃO NACIONAL: COMPREENSÃO DAS CAUSAS-RAIZ DOS ACIDENTES QUE PROVOCAM DERRAMAMENTO DE PETRÓLEO NO MAR

The present study has as a research theme the pollution of the national maritime waters caused by the operations of extraction, storage and transport of oil and its derivatives. Its general objective is to analyze how the understanding of the causes of pollution arising from the extraction, storage and transportation of oil and its derivatives helps to reduce the contamination of the Brazilian maritime waters, thus contributing to the improvement of the quality of these waters. It is the result of a bibliographical research based on the works of Eliane M. Octaviano Martins 2007 and 2009. Thus, the first chapter showed that accidents with oil spills are considered to be more harmful to the environment compared to other types of pollution in the sea. In addition, human error was highlighted as the most important error in maritime accidents and was related to the poor training of the professionals involved in the operation. The study facilitates understanding of the major flaws in the prevention of marine pollution from oil spills and shows the importance of risk management. It addresses the Brazilian position regarding international maritime safety standards and prevention of the marine environment. It evidences the importance of controlling the damage caused by an oil spill accident through efficient response in a timely manner to the distress. It exposes the condition of Brazil in the IMO, some Brazilian legislation and IMO codes and conventions. It shows how many standards are developed for the purpose of responding to major accidents both nationally and internationally. It demonstrates the harm caused by the lack of speed in enacting laws and enforcing standards. It presents some unilateral measures, some regional agreements and their effects. The overall goal is achieved through specific objectives. The paper concludes that oil production has sufficient economic and social relevance to assume its risks and that prevention of pollution is the best way to improve the quality of the Brazilian marine environment.

ОБОСНОВАНИЕ КРИТЕРИЕВ РЕАБИЛИТАЦИИ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ УРАНОВОГО НАСЛЕДИЯ

Purpose: To present approaches to establishing the criteria for remediation of sites contaminated due to past activities of uranium mining and milling facilities. These facilities are considered today as uranium legacy.&#x0D; Results: This paper presents the justified reference levels expressed in terms of annual effective dose values, which are recommended for using as remediation criteria for sites contaminated due to past activities of uranium mining and milling facilities (uranium legacy sites). &#x0D; Depending on further use of the sites after remediation, these criteria range from 1 µSv/year, in case of temporary presence of the population, to 10 µSv/year, in case of permanent residence of the population and conducting economic activities.&#x0D; Conclusions: In accordance with the international basic safety standards, accepted more than 10 years ago, exposure situations from radioactive material retained from previous activities refer to the existing exposure situation.&#x0D; Nevertheless, neither Federal Law “On Radiation Safety of the Population” nor Radiation Safety Standards have so far introduced terms “existing exposure situation” covering exposure at nuclear and uranium legacy sites and “reference level”, which is used to assure radiation safety of the population living at legacy sites or using these sites for the purpose of the economic activities.