A health worker uses a scanning machine at the scanning department of Binh Dan Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City

The 52 X-ray centers, hospitals and research centers in Ho Chi Minh City that use radioactive material Friday agreed to abide by new safety rules.

HCMC has 644 radioactive sources, including 208 active sources and 436 kept in store, a meeting heard Friday. The meeting was organized by the department and the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety and Control (VARNSAC).

However, many of the storage facilities were not designed to keep radioactive material secure, VARNSAC Head Ngo Dang Nhan said.

Nhan showed the meeting photos of mistakes in storing radioactive material at local establishments, including a radiotherapy device not being separated from other medical equipment.

He said the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) was planning to establish a national storage facility for radioactive waste.

For the time being, MOST has authorized the Hanoi Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology and the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute to store radioactive sources.

It is estimated that 50 percent of the centers in Vietnam that use radioactive material are privately-owned, which makes it hard for the state to control the proper use and storage of the material, according to Dinh Ngoc Quang, a VARNSAC offical.

Thirteen Vietnamese health centers, meanwhile, are reported to have 22 radioactive sources operating at high danger levels.

In Vietnam, radioactive sources have long been used, yet radiation safety matters have not been considered a high priority, Quang said.

A series of radioactivity scares have been reported recently.

Sixty-three workers at the Dung Quat oil refinery in the central province of Quang Ngai were sent to a nuclear research institute to test for radioactive contamination after high radioactivity levels were recorded near their work site in late March.

In December last year, M&C Petroleum Technical Services Company (PTSC M&C) in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province had to evacuate its site and rush several workers to hospital when radioactive material went missing from a testing device. The workers tested negative for radiation poisoning.

New radiation safety regulations – known as the radioactive security assurance statute – were issued in July.

Reported by Mai Vong