STCU CHEMICAL SAFETY AND SECURITY TRAINING MEETING FOR UKRAINIAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRY HELD IN ALUSHTA, CRIMEA, OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 4, 2011

31 Oct 2011 - 04 Nov 2011

Science and Technology Center in Ukraine, along with US Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories’ International Chemical Threat Reduction Program (ICTR), in association with the U.S. Department of State’s Chemical Security Engagement Program (CSP) and with the help of Union of Chemists of Ukraine has provided training on industrial chemical safety and security. This 5 – day training meeting was held in Alushta, Crimea, Ukraine (October 31 – Nobember 4) for 24 Ukrainian chemical industry managers representing Ukrainian chemical industry. Most participants were heads of department for safe working conditions from ammonia industry, fertilizer plants and coke-processing plants.
The US State Department’s CSP program seeks to develop and facilitate cooperative international activities that promote best practices in chemical security and safe management of hazardous chemicals. This course fulfills one of the CSP objectives which are to “provide technical expertise and training to improve security and safety best practices, such as those reflected in the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care Security Code.
The response of the chemical industry managers who participated in the training meeting was very positive, many of them asking to get more in depth training in the future in specific areas of chemical processing in Ukraine. The Sandia National Lab team of three trainers is well positioned to provide such training since they do this kind of training and teaching in many other countries around the world on behalf of the International Chemical Threat Reduction Program. They were very pleased with the Ukrainian participants and the outcome of the training, and believe that the Ukrainian chemical managers are well positioned to continue developing safe and secure working conditions for chemical workers in Ukraine.
The US Department of State’s initiative in Ukraine was a pilot activity in the chemical industry and they believe that there may be other opportunities to provide training and best practices in other areas of safety and security.
The training meeting was developed and organized by STCU’s Peter Melnik Melnikov, along with the help of Olga Misiura. Vic Korsun, STCU Deputy Executive Director (USA) provided support.