[en] Russia Governmental Committee of Hydrology and Metrology carries out composite radiation monitoring in Russia. The independent investigation conduction is explained by a low trust of population and the general public to the authorities and institutions representing departmental interests. The work was conducted on the initiation of a public organization named as Soyuz Chernobyl of Russia and supported by the Headquarters of RSC KI, Bremen University (Germany) and Portsmut University (England) under the financial aid and technical assistance of 'Korolevskoe obshestvo' (England). A group of independent experts monitored a level of the contamination in Bryansk, Orlovsk, Tulsk and Kaluzhsk regions of Russia, using the means of the field radiometry and spectrometry as well as outcomes of the ground and water samples investigations conducted in laboratories. The obtained data are compared with official ones. The detected deviations (Sudidmir, Kaluzhsk region) and features of the independent monitoring organization discussed. (author)

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[en] 27 June 1954 saw the birth of nuclear power in the Soviet Union when a 5 MWe plant went into operation. The second reference point falls on 26 April 1986. Since then the fate of nuclear energy in the Soviet Union has been transformed once again: ft is now clear the Chernobyl did not entirely bury the notion of building nuclear p0wer stations. There are even signs that the leaders of the new states, as well as the general public, are beginning to see some of benefits of continuing with nuclear power programmes

[en] Due to the general catastrophic situation of radiation oncology in Russia, its outdated equipment and shortage of medical physicists, the clinical dosimetry is also in a very poor state and doesn't meet the modern requirements of the quality assurance in radiotherapy. In Russia there are 140 radiotherapy departments, 100 medical accelerators and 250 gamma apparatus but only 150 clinical dosimeters and 75 dose field analyzers, 90% of which are morally and physically obsolete and do not meet the requirements of the quality assurance. Ten percent of the radiotherapy departments are not equipped with clinical dosimeters at all. There is no national program of quality assurance in radiotherapy. Service for dosimetry equipment calibration is lacking. The national standards and protocols of clinical dosimetry haven't been elaborated. Two-hundred-and-sixty medical physicists work in radiotherapy, 90% of whom have insufficient experience and qualification. Ten percent of radiotherapy departments do not have medical physicists in its staff at all and the rest of the departments face a shortage of medical physicists. The number of medical physicists is not enough to provide the full medical physics service. Qualified medical physicists do not stay long in clinics because of the small salary. As a result of these drawbacks the accuracy of the therapeutic dose delivery to the tumour often achieves 30% instead of the 5% admissible error. This situation leads to high radiation risks, particularly for radiation overdosage or underdosage during the patient's treatment. However, there are no radiation accident statistics in Russia; therefore it's impossible to evaluate them in terms of quantity. Unfortunately, this is the outcome of the lack of the state policy in this field. Neither the Health Ministry nor the Rosatom is concerned about this problem. The only thing that the Health Ministry is undertaking now is the purchase of the new equipment, dosimetry equipment included, for the oncology institutions. But this happens without the necessary organization of the medical physicists' education and regulation based improvement

[en] Short communication

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[en] Nanoparticle and nanomaterial research has become one of the most active frontier areas. In Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union work devoted to the thorough study of ultrafine media (low-dimensional subjects) started early. In the present paper a short historical review is given and the problems of nanoparticle research in Russia and some related fields (such as nanomaterials, nanochemistry, and nanophysics) are discussed

[en] Background The fall of the “iron curtain” and dissolution of the Soviet Union represented a dramatic turning point for the countries involved. In the area of radiotherapy services, it is convenient to discuss the Soviet era as opposed to the post-Soviet/ modern era. The emphasis in the Soviet Union was on providing universally available free medical care, and this appears to have been achieved to a large extent. The post-Soviet countries had inherited the Soviet Semashko system of health care but, despite its achievements, many expressed discontent with what they saw as its poor quality, inefficiency and lack of responsiveness. There have been calls for change by national authorities, but they were less clear about how to address it, especially at a time of severe fiscal constraints and lack of personnel trained in concepts of modern medicine. Methods This Project was organized as a systematic gathering of information on the present status of radiotherapy practice in countries in Eastern Europe/Central Asia.

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