Training at Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences

Dear colleagues,

In the wonderful environment of Serbian forests, just a few km outside the capital city, Belgrade, The Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences hosted the students of the 7th Edition of the 1st level #MasterCBRNe of the University of Rome Tor Vergata from the 20th to the 24th of May 2024 for a RAD and BIO training.

The training was led by Dr. Gvozden Tasić, who also took care of the coordination of the teaching phases and logistics. The training session lasted 5 days and was split into two parts: radiological and biological threats. 

During the first part, lessons and practical demonstrations covered in detail all aspects relating to radiological sources: radionuclides, measurements, preparation of radiopharmaceuticals, safe storage of disused radioactive material, to the actual recovery exercises of orphan radiological sources.

The second part of the training was supervised by Dr. Ana Todorović and Dr. Dunja Drakulić and it was completely focused on biological threats. Starting with theoretical and practical lessons about safety measures, PPE (donning and doffing), personal decontamination procedures, and detection of biological agents, the rest of the training has been focused on practical exercises, together with the precious help of Dr. Ana  Brankovic for all aspects related to forensics in a CBRNe context. 

The final exercise was a scenario in which an eco-terrorist group used an abandoned facility to develop biological agents and used them to contaminate the city. Starting on 23th May evening in the form of a CBRNe drill exercise (News and data received through WhatsApp all night long), the “squad” composed of our students regrouped in the early morning of Friday 24th to the suspected facility. Three teams were created: investigation, forensics, and coordination. All phases of evidence research, evidence collection, forensics, and agent detection were developed and performed, until discovering the presence of a member of the eco-terrorist group that was still hiding in the woods (kindly interpreted by a staff member, Dr. Nicola Simone).

They were intense and tiring but also deeply instructive and fun days, and everything worked very well thanks to the collaboration, availability, and friendship shown by all the staff of the Vinča Institute.

We want to thank all the staff members of Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, the students, and the accompanying reference persons of the MasterCBRNe Directive Board Dr. Riccardo Quaranta and Dr. Nicola Simone. A special thanks to Dr. Simone who has completed all the training and acted like a facilitator for the MasterCBRNe all 5 days!

STAY TUNED!