Státní ústav jaderné, chemické a biologické ochrany

Home About us History
History

skmbt_c35108111814080-1The National Institute for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Protection (the SUJCHBO) was established on 1. 1. 2000 on the basis of a decision of the chairwoman of the State Office for Nuclear Safety (the SÚJB), Prague – Dana Drábová, PhD., as an organisation receiving contributions from the state budget. It was engaged in the measurement of the effects of nuclear, chemical and biological agents on persons and the environment, including the evaluation of the protection levels of personal and collective protective equipment against the above mentioned agents. Research and development in this field was also a part of the activities of this institute.

vdoleIn accordance with Act No.  341/2005 Coll. on Public Research Institutions, the SUJCHBO has been transferred to a public research institution since 1. 1. 2007. 

The decision on establishing the SUJCHBO was preceded by the split-off of a part of specialised laboratories from the former Institute for Certified Tests and Solution of Emergency Situations (ÚEŘMS) in 1999 carried out in accordance with the decree of the Minister of Health whom the Institute reported to. Then, a contract on the split-off between the ÚEŘMS and the SÚJB, Prague, was made and the split-off laboratories became the basis for the newly formed National Institute for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Protection.


lab4They were, in particular, the laboratories engaged in the measurement and the evaluation of natural radioactivity with a special concern for the measurement of radon and its decay products. Such laboratories had a long tradition in the former ÚEŘMS and its predecessors (since the Institute was subject to several significant organisational changes in the course of years) with its origin going back to 1954. At that time, the Works Hygiene and Epidemics Centre was founded within the framework of the Works National Health Institute of the Jáchymov Mines (later of the Uranium-Mining Industry). skmbt_c35108111814080-3The Centre was then transformed into the Institute for Occupational Hygiene and the Prevention of Occupational Diseases during the Mining and Treating of Radioactive Raw Materials and subsequently into the Institute of Occupational Hygiene in the Uranium-Mining Industry.  The object of the activities carried out by such laboratories was the complete sanitary supervision (including the occupational medicine) in the mining and treating of radioactive raw materials in the former Czechoslovak Republic.  Principal in this activity was the supervision done in the underground workplaces in all the mining areas aimed at the protection of health of miners against the most significant harmful substance – radon and its decay products. In the course of those more than fifty years, lots of knowledge and experience was obtained both from the Czechoslovak and the foreign uranium mines that are now used in other fields, e.g. in the implementation of the Radon Programme of the Czech Republic dealing with the protection of population against their exposure to radon in dwelling.

skmbt_c35108111814080-2Chemical and biological protection laboratories were built after the establishment of the SUJCHBO.  Such laboratories are engaged in the fast identification of chemical agents, in particular the dangerous and highly dangerous chemical agents and hazardous and highly hazardous biological agents and toxins that can be misused as the weapons of mass destruction. The activities of such laboratories focused on the fulfilment of the tasks resulting from the relevant legislation, the current needs of the Czech Republic, the international situation and the obligations are currently the key activities of the SUJCHBO.