Ukraine possesses a high scientific potential, the effective use of which may be a key element in the process to overcome the country’s socioeconomic and ecological crises.

The following bodies of the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety which have carried out realized scientific research onto the Ministry’s request were:

the Ukrainian Scientific-Research Institute for Ecological Problems, Kharkiv;

the Ukrainian Research Centre of Sea Ecology, Odesa;

the Interdepartmental Centre of Ecology, Kharkiv;

the Ukrainian Scientific and Technical Centre of Ecology “Sensor”, Cherkasy;

and the State Scientific and Technical Centre of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SSTCNRS), Kyiv.

Besides, the Ministry had a customer for execution of research and development projects carried out by enterprises of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Ministry for Education and other departments.

In 1998 the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety continued to carry out scientific research aimed at the formulation of the the principles of the national ecological policy, creation of scientific grounds for environmental protection, rational use and recovery of natural resources, and also at the ensuring of ecological, including nuclear and radiation safety within the framework of the defined priorities of scientific research.

In order to provide a scientific support for to “The National Programme of Ecological Recovery of the Dnieper Basin and Improvement of the Drinking Water Quality” there has been:

 substantiated priorities lines of research for scientific-technical support of the National Programme (developed structure, information requirements and forms for carrying out research works; suggested the system of criteria for evaluation of proposals for financing scientific research);

 developed methodical principles for preparation and implementation of the regional and local ecological programmes within the framework of the National Programme;

 developed software for an information system to support the implementation of the National Programme (database of the information system by sections: ecological and economic information relative to the basin; retrospective hydrological and hydrochemical information);

 developed the Concept of the basin approach for the control of water quality in Ukraine, and principles and plans for of the basin system recovery in the Dnieper Basin;

 developed ecological and economic criteria for determination of the priority methods for the Dnipro Basin with due regard to the complex effect of their actions, and the system of specific criteria for the simulation methods based on the standpoint of their use in the decision- making systems.

Within the framework of implementation of the scientific part of the state program of prospective development of the reserves work in Ukraine there has been carried out:

 investigations on the development of scientific principles for the ecosystem control of the national natural parks “Svyati gory”, “Podil’ski Tovtry”, “Shatsky”;

 scientific substantiation for the creation of the national natural parks “Nyzhn’odnistrovsky” and “ Chechel’nytsky” (the territories are characterized and boundaries have been established of the mentioned objects are substantiated; their scientific, conservation and recreation values have been is determined; and proposals have been submit given for the functional zoning of the territories);

 works on the creation of the geographical information chart of the Natural Reserve Lands of Ukraine, for this purpose the digital chart of the administrative-territorial division of Ukraine, scale 1 : 500000, was prepared);

 development of the general concept of the program for the formation of the national ecological network and its structure.

During implementation of the Program on utilization of the production and consumption waste for the period up to the year of 2005 there has been following was made:

 agreed the final wording of the GOST projects and introduction into the GOST 17 SOOP system of a new special group GOST 17.9 “Environmental Protection. Waste Handling”;, prepared the package of proposals about the further performance of the interstate standardization in the sphere of waste handling and realization of the international project on the experimental regional-branch introduction of standards;

 carried out a comparison and systematization of normative requirements relative to waste handling in the systems of normative documents in force; carried out a comparative analysis of the normative base of waste handling in Ukraine and in other countries; performed the analysis ,regarding classification and characteristics of the standardization objects;

 generalized the practice of waste handling use in EUC and OECD countries and normative requirements relative to waste handling, and substantiated their most essential elements for application in Ukraine.

As to the state procedure for “Creation of the research and- production plots for processing toxic waste of galvanic production with the obtaining of nonferrous metals from chromium ferrite, there has been:

 developed was the working project of the “Research and - production plot for processing waste of galvanic production” in conformity with the norms, rules and, instructions in force, including the norms regarding provide the explosion and fire hazards during exploitation of buildings and structures;

 carried out was the assembly of technological services and production equipment and of the fertilization process of chromium run-off;

 performed were the preliminary- adjustment works of the production equipment of the chromium fertilization complex.

The brief explanatory dictionary “Terms and definitions in the sphere of waste handling” has been prepared for publication.

During implementation of interbranch scientific-technical programme “Ecological diagnosis, examination, monitoring”, investigations were aimed at the urgent tasks:

 creating to the creation of units and blocks of the experimental models of the production equipment with the definition of the atmospheric pollution by gas admixtures;

 developing of a the device for release of admixtures from liquid substances, designing of the systems for measuring the hazard levels of noise and vibration, for measuring levels of ground waters, for determining damages in the ecologically hazardous reservoirs, for determining toxic admixtures in the aquatic environment and also for measuring hazard levels of electromagnetic pollution of the environment, and a knowledge base of the diagnostic complex.

As to the interbranch scientific-technical programme “Realization of control, evaluation and prediction of the situation on the development of petrol-chemical pollutions of subterranean waters of Ukraine”, there has been:

 performed a the analysis and developed a the procedure of initial information on evaluation of the influence of the natural and technogenic factors on pollution of subterranean waters by oil products;

 executed was the developedment of mathematical models of oil products migration in the subterranean environment as well as their software and association with geoinfiltration systems;

 carried out   tests of the developed programmes and simulation procedures for the creation of models and for simulation of oil pollution distribution near the Kherson Oil Refineries and the Odesa Petroleum Integrated Works;

 developed were methods of fractual interpolation of two- and three-dimensional objects, the methods were brought to computational algorithms;

 made were calculations on interpolation of geoecological data of the testing ground “Feofaniya”, sites of petrochemical pollutions;

 developed was the first wording of the Method for estimation of risk on sites of petrochemical pollution of subterranean waters and grounds by oil products.

As to the state contract on “Creation of the methods for the water quality control”, there has been:

 created a data bank for hardware of analytical laboratories of the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety;

 created a data bank for hardware components of the water quality control;

 developed and manufactured was a test specimen of the microlaboratory;

 developed and certified a the procedure for determination of heavy metals in environmental objects. A model of the complex was developed and manufactured, and specifications for DCR were formuelaborated;

 developed and manufactured was a model of bioindicator, and elaborated were specifications for DCR were formulated;

 developed were seven DSS.

Principal points concerning a permission procedure for special use of natural plant resources of the national significance were developed first in Ukraine.

Marine natureal -reserve objects have been classified relative to the pollution levels of the aquatic environment, state of benthic forms of ecosystems and the existence of the main pathways of migration of the commercial and the most valuable fish species; the creation of the base for electronic charts has begun, as has: regionalization of sea aquatory by the pollution level of coastal waters and the available hydrological reserve zones.

Investigations have been conducted for the creation of a network of certified interdepartmental laboratories on biotesting in different regions of Ukraine. For this purpose there has been:

 developed a the procedure for determination of genotoxicity of water by the frequency of the dominant lethal mutations in Drosophila melanogaster Mg. and also the project of the guidance normative document for it;

 prepared were the procedures for determination of the acute lethal and chronic toxicity with the use of Crustacea by specialists of biotesting laboratories who should be certified;

 worked out was a general programme for preparation of biotesting laboratories for certification;

 arranged a methodical and practical seminar on problems of biotesting in order to for preparieng specialists of biotesting laboratories for certification;

 carried out certification on biotesting of a number of departments of analytical control of the conservancy bodies of the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety.

The control of air pollution and at the same time the absence of effective methods for the atmosphere control make the problem of development and manufacture of automated gas analyzers very urgent. Investigations were have been carried out and a model of automated tape photometric analyzer of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide in the air atmosphere has been developed on the basis of new designs, which has made it possible to achieve necessary sensitivity indices of the analysis and also to decrease clearances, mass and power consumption of the gas analyzer. It has been confirmed during investigations that the device design is convenient in service and reliable in operation. Competitiveness of the development is supported by patents and inventions of Ukraine and Russia.

A number of research activities have been works were aimed at the solution of problems of nuclear and radiation safety:

 development of normative documents: - prepared, registered at the Ministry for Justice and put into force has been ND “Safety certificate procedure for transportation of radioactive materials”; , the work with the following normative documents is under way: “ Main rules of safety”, “Rules for accounting and control of nuclear materials atone a plant”, “State system of accounting and control. Instruction on account control of nuclear materials at a plant”, “Systems of control and management of nuclear power plants. Safety. General technical requirements”, “The method for estimating the adequacy of the systems of control and management of power plants in terms of safety requirements”;

 developed and put into operation has been a the procedure for prediction of theological control losses of efforts in reinforced rope of power units;

 the expert and analytical support has been provided made by the Authority of nuclear control (the disturbances in the NPP work were analyzed each quarter; analytical observances of the state of the nuclear and radiation safety in Ukraine were prepared each quarter; projects of normative documents of the Ministry for Power Industry and documents of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were considered; the state examination of the nuclear and radiation safety of designs proposed by NPP for plant operation was carried out made;

 the mastering of the accounting programmes presented by western partners as technical aid has continued together with the inspection of the adequacy of the Ukrainian NPP in terms of safety criteria by these programmes;

 the laboratory for measuring nuclear materials has been organized, and the methods for carrying out measurements have been developed;

 reliability of the NPP equipment has been analyzed in order to solve problems in terms of on continuation of its conditions for their continued operation terms.

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