If 2013 is an average year, then odds on there will be a serious radiation incident resulting in major injury or death. There have been over 200 in the last 50 years. Often, the first sign of the problem is when someone turns up at A&E.
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Police not only combat criminals on Delhi’s streets. They are now being trained to deal with threats to security from Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) agents.
We were delighted to hear about the recent defence agreement signed between the UK and Japan that will safeguard a framework of collaboration for research, development and production of defence equipment. The agreement, the first of its kind internationally, will focus on defence, including the CBRN defence industry, and will bring together expertise, skills and knowledge within the defence industries.
For firefighters, bringing wild or forest fires under control is a challenge they face every day. Wild fires can spread at a rate of over 14 miles an hour over dry, sun-parched land and can overwhelm even the most seasoned professionals. Only recently, we’ve seen tragedies in different communities when firefighters have been lost in operations. And with increasing disruption in global temperatures and weather patterns, this problem seems unlikely to recede anytime soon.
Instances of nuclear leaks on a global scale are extremely rare, but following the devastating tsunami that struck Japan in 2011 engineers have struggled to contain radioactive material. Toxic isotope Strontium-90 has been found in groundwater at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant at 30 times the legal rate.
The global military market spent more than $1.6 trillion during 2012. For the most part such spending is carefully regulated and purchases are stringently vetted to ensure compliance with vital safety legislation. However, we were horrified to hear the recent news about the ‘golf ball detectors’ that have been sold around the world as fully operative bomb detectors. What made this story even more worrying was the news that these had been sold to countries such as Iraq, Thailand and Romania to name just a few.