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Title
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Preventing radiological terrorism : securing radioactive sources in hospitals
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Author
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Abstract
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| For several years, States have increased national and international efforts to prevent acts of nuclear and radiological terrorism. As a result, various legal instruments were adopted and political initiatives were launched to further secure nuclear facilities, nuclear materials and any other radioactive materials. The present research specifically studies the security of radioactive sources in hospitals in Belgium. In such environments, radioactive sources are used for various beneficial medical purposes, such as external beam radiotherapy or blood irradiation. The specific characteristics of hospitals (e.g. working dynamics or accessibility) represent a challenge in developing and maintaining an effective and sustainable system to secure radioactive sources. In such a context, the purpose of this research is twofold: assessing the state of security of radioactive sources in hospitals; providing recommendations thereon to relevant authorities, hospitals’ senior management and practitioners to improve the security of radioactive sources. The study of the state of security of radioactive sources in hospitals in Belgium identified various weaknesses in the nuclear security system. First, while many hospitals have physical security measures (e.g. cameras or tamper detection) in place to detect unauthorized access to radioactive sources, those are not adequately implemented, therefore limiting their purpose. Second, some elements of the nuclear security culture are not addressed. For example, most hospitals currently do not have a security plan or a comprehensive trustworthiness program which takes into account the specificities of radioactive sources. Third, some elements pertaining to the facility layout (e.g. access points and delivery routes) are not designed to limit the access to or theft of radioactive sources. At last, hospital staff have overall a low level of security awareness, therefore not encouraging the comprehensive implementation of existing security measures or providing an incentive to improve these measures and contribute to the nuclear security system. Based on the assessment of the state of security of radioactive sources in hospitals in Belgium, the study provides two types of recommendations to the relevant stakeholders. On the one hand, recommendations addressing institutional and organizational measures, such as developing a security plan, establishing a trustworthiness program or raising the level of security awareness, and, on the other hand, recommendations pertaining to physical security measures, such as considering security by design, promoting short delivery routes or addressing security during non- standard operations. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerp
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University of Antwerp, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science
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2019
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Volume/pages
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355 p.
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Note
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:
Sauer, Tom [Supervisor]
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