by Prof. Ing. Dušan Vičar, Ing. Ivan Princ, Doc. Ing. Ivan Mašek, Doc. Ing. Otakar Jiří Mika, Czech Republic
Dear editor-in-Chief;
We are contacting you with the following offer resulting from the current international situation. It may allow the laymen and also experts get acquainted with selected aspects of weapons of mass destruction and protection against them in the case of wider popularization.
“Russian threats of nuclear weapons, the occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the first days of the war, attack by Russian troops on the night of March 3-4, 2022 at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe in Zaporozhye, Ukraine, the destruction of a nuclear laboratory at the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology on the night of March 8-9, 2022 and the attacks on chemical facilities March 21 as a result of the shelling from the side of the Russian forces, ammonia leaked from a chemical plant on the outskirts of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine which hit the area within about 2.5 kilometres and hitting the nitric acid tank in the city of Rubizhn in the Luhansk region fully showed how dangerous approach has Vladimir Putin chosen and that there are no agreements nor rules that are observed”.
The Geneva Conventions containing also provisions on the protection of dangerous objects or objects that could become dangerous if they came under military attack were breached. Leakage of radiation from the power plant or chemical toxic substances from these facilities could endanger whole Europe. An example happened in the 1990s during the war for Kosovo when 23 petrochemical plants, oil refineries, fuel depots and 121 important industrial plants containing various chemicals and substances harmful to human health were attacked during the bombing of selected targets. Throughout the war, thousands of tons of highly hazardous substances (including dioxin) were released into the air, soil and water, contaminating an area of more than 100,000 km2 (exceeding the territory of the Czech Republic).
Based on the events mentioned above, the authors of the published e-book entitled: “Nuclear, Radiological and Chemical Weapons, Radiation and Chemical Accidents” decided to offer the ebook to inform the general public and experts about this issue. The above highlights the importance and usability of the ebook as a comprehensive material in the field of “protection against the effects of the use or misuse of nuclear, radiological and chemical weapons, and of radiation and chemical accidents”.
In addition to the professional description of the history of development and use of nuclear, radiological weapons, chemical weapons and radiation and chemical accident cases, their destructive effects and principles of protection against them, the ebook also contains original case studies on the consequences of nuclear accidents and incidents such as Jaslovské Bohunice (Slovakia, 1971), Tree Mile Island (USA, 1979), Chernobyl (Ukraine, 1986), Fukushima (Japan, 2011) and also concerning hitherto known and potential scenarios of so-called CBRN terrorism using radioactive materials.
In the field of nuclear and radiological weapons, the e-book also contains a historical excursion into past nuclear crises during the so-called “Cold War between West and East” such as the Korean, Caribbean or Vietnam nuclear crisis and the subsequent period of nuclear disarmament efforts in the world. In their e-book, the authors also address the secondary effects of depleted uranium munitions on both the population and soldiers at the sites of use of these munitions in the war in the states of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
In the field of chemical weapons and chemical accidents, the e-book contains case studies of the misuse of neuroparalytic substances such as “Novičok” from the Russian military chemical project “Foliant” such as the poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal in Salisbury, England, March 4, 2018, or the use of pesticides by US troops in the Vietnam War in 1962-71, including their impact on the population and the environment.
In the e-book, the authors further evaluate selected industrial chemical compounds both in terms of their physicochemical and toxicological properties as potentially misuse substances for terrorist purposes as secondary chemical weapons, and in terms of possible technological accidents associated with the release of these substances into the environment. The selected chemical toxic substances mentioned in the text are based on the authors’ analysis of their probable occurrence within the Czech infrastructure. The e-book in English is available in the digital library of the Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic .
Sincerely, the team of authors Ing. Ivan Princ
Authors: Bio
Dušan Vičar is a researcher and educationalist, with many years of experience in performing academic positions and managing research teams, when working on research projects and research intents. Currently, he holds the position of the Director of the Department of Population Protection at the Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management at the Tomas Bata University in Zlín.
He is a graduate from the Antonin Zapotocky Military Academy in Brno, branch of chemical engineering (1977). From 1983 to 1988, he was involved in external research training at the Antonin Zapotocky Military Academy in Brno in the branch of, Operational and Combat Employment of Army Branches, Special Technical and Logistic Support”. In 1992, he earned his higher doctorate in the “Weapons and Protection against Them” branch of study at the Military University of the Ground Forces in Vyškov. In 2004, he became a professor in the procedure for the appointment to a professorship in the branch of “Protection of Troops and Population” at the Military University of the Ground Forces, Vyškov.
Ivan Princ is a lecturer at the Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management (Department of Population Protection) of the Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic, since 2012. He teaches the issues of population protection in the bachelor´s study program. He is a supervisor and an external examiner of bachelor´s final projects of students. His research and pedagogical practice at universities lasts 10 years.
He previously worked as a lecturer of the Military Strategy and Operational Art Group at the Department of Martial Art Studies at the Institute for Strategic and Defence Studies (chemical expertise) at the University of Defence in Brno (2009-2010). Between 1990 and 1991, he took part in the Desert Storm and Desert Shield combat missions in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as a member of the 1st special Czechoslovak NBC Defence Battalion where chemical weapons were detected. In 2002, he took part in the ISAF 2 foreign security mission in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the professional position (expert adviser to the commander of the contingent in the area of Protection against Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Protection of Troops) in the 11th Field Hospital Headquarters.
Doc. Ing. Ivan Mašek is an academic at the Tomas Bata University in Zlín, the Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management in Uherské Hradiště, the Department of Population Protection. From 1992 to 2008, he was an academic at the Brno University of Technology, the Faculty of Chemistry, the Institute of Chemistry and Environmental Protection.
He is an author and co-author of dozens of publications for international conferences and technical journals in the field of highly toxic chemicals and environmental protection, population protection, toxic waste dumps, electronic waste recycling; he is an author and co-author of 5 patents; currently, he deals with the issues of security and population protection, highly toxic chemicals, weapons of mass destruction and protection against them, individual and collective protection of personnel, crisis management and contingency planning. He is a founder of bachelor’s study programme entitled “Population Protection”.
Doc. Ing. Ivan Mašek is an academic at the Tomas Bata University in Zlín, the Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management in Uherské Hradiště, the Department of Population Protection. From 1992 to 2008, he was an academic at the Brno University of Technology, the Faculty of Chemistry, the Institute of Chemistry and Environmental Protection.
He is an author and co-author of dozens of publications for international conferences and technical journals in the field of highly toxic chemicals and environmental protection, population protection, toxic waste dumps, electronic waste recycling; he is an author and co-author of 5 patents; currently, he deals with the issues of security and population protection, highly toxic chemicals, weapons of mass destruction and protection against them, individual and collective protection of personnel, crisis management and contingency planning. He is a founder of bachelor’s study programme entitled “Population Protection”.
