Sources of ionizing radiation are used in many branches of the national economy: industry, medicine, agriculture, science, etc.
According to the Ministry of Health Care about 9,000 enterprises and organizations in Ukraine are presently using more than 100,000 SIR; the average annual activity of radioactive materials equals 320,000 curie (open type) or 900,000 kg-equivalents of radium (closed type).
Most SIRs are found in the regions of Kharkiv (about 800 enterprises), Donetsk (more than 400), Dnipropetrovsk (more than 200), Lugansk (more than 100) and in Kyiv (more than 300). Creation and launching of a national SIR registration and monitoring system will help improve enterprise and SIR registration and monitoring. The ways SIR are used is specific for each branch, and in addition to usage in medicine SIR are used for radiographic monitoring, technological monitoring and measurements (weight, quantity, thickness, etc.), geophysical bore investigations, medical goods sterilization and scientific research.
The main problems of SIR usage are:

Use and reservation of out-of-date open sources of ionizing radiation, unsolved problems of their application and disposal .

Used SIR presence without possibility of their disposal, this is especially a problem of high-power SIR, which number close to 1,000 units. There are no burial technologies for them in Ukraine. In Soviet times such SIR were transported back to Russian plants where they had been produced (after usage time). Today Russia refuses to take used SIR back.

Insufficiency of measures for SIR monitoring, registration and provision of preservation.

Lack of SIR application quality systems at enterprises.

The SIR storage problem is very acute due to the economic crisis in the country. Some enterprises have stopped their activity including activity connected with the use of SIR. Such enterprises can deliver their SIR for burial.

A decree of the Cabinet of Ministry of Ukraine (No. 847, 4 August 1997) adopted the Programme of State SIR Register creation and Regulation concerning State SIR Register and procedures for registration service payment. This provided for the establishment of a single SIR registration and monitoring system.

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