Dear colleagues,
Last week (21-25 March 2022) a selection of students from the 1st and 2nd Level in Protection Against CBRNe events has completed the Chem-Rad training activity at the Seibersdorf Laboratories in Austria (partner of the MasterCBRNe since 2013.
The activities have been useful to give the students a practical experience about handling a CR contamination, making a detection, dressing PPEs.
DAY 1:
A group of students from the 1st and 2nd Level of the CBRNe Master Courses began a five-day Live Agent Training (LAT) course in chemical & radiological detection and response at Seibersdorf Labor GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
The morning began with a tour of the training facility and a brief introduction about the work done at Seibersdorf.
Following a practical discussion about training with live chemical and radiological agents, the students were introduced to the radiation detection equipment and how the emission of different isotopes are shielded or weakened by various elements.
DAY 2:
the students were introduced to the PPE equipment that will be used for exercises with live agents in the following days.
Today’s lessons focused on detecting and identifying sealed radiation sources.
The training staff demonstrated their equipment and the students gained familiarity with it by practicing searching for an unidentified radiation source in a specific area.
In the second half of the day, they conducted two radiation detection scenarios with unidentified sources in different settings.
DAY 3:
The 1st & 2nd Level #MasterCBRNe Master Course students conducted radiation exercises on March 23rd at Seibersdorf Labor GmbH in Vienna, Austria.
Today they wore full protective gear – #PPE – and learned how to distinguish between sealed and unsealed radiation sources.
The students practiced in pairs testing different objects to determine which were contaminated and which were sealed emissions.
In the afternoon, they experienced two important safety scenarios.
For the first scenario, they worked in groups to check individuals for contamination and practiced removal of the contaminated areas by clothing elimination.
In the second scenario, each student was trained on the correct procedures to decontaminate skin through a cleaning exercise.
DAY 4:
On March 24th the 1st & 2nd Level Master CBRNe students spent the day training with live sulfur mustard.
The students learned the difference in procedures and equipment between detection and decontamination for radiation vs. chemical warfare agents.
During the morning training session, students practiced individually detecting the mustard agent on various contaminated objects. In the afternoon they worked with decontamination materials to practice removing the agent from contaminated skin.
They also received a demonstration of the agent’s reaction with other chemicals (not pictured).
DAY 5:
The students ran a group scenario with unsealed and sealed radiation to simulate a realistic response situation.
The group was divided into 3 teams.
Each team was responsible for a vital part in the response process: team leader, assessment, decontamination, and logistics.
They learned how to put together all the important steps they have learned this week to assess a suspected radiation source for contamination and remove the sealed sources.
We would like to give our special thanks to Dieter Rothbacher & Alex Stolar and the Seibersdorf facility for their hard work in educating and guiding our students through this unique training experience.
We would like to thank all the participants of the #MasterCBRN and a special thanks to Grace Xerri for the tutoring and for the daily activity of report, photo, and video material.
We would like to thank the HESAR association, a special thanks to the President Alba Iannotti and Deputy-President Colomba Russo for the organization of this amazing experience.
We would like also to thank all the Directive Board of the MasterCBRNe
Stay TUNED!
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