IAEAInternational Atomic Energy Agency

Emergency Response

Overview of Basic Concepts in Emergency Preparedness and Response

Day 10 – Lecture 2

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Objective

To learn about the concepts and principles apply to different practices and sources with the potential for causing radiation exposure or environmental radioactive contamination warranting emergency intervention, and to all countries and regions that might need to implement emergency intervention

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Content

• Objectives of emergency response and preparedness

• Basic responsibilities• Assessment of threats• Functional and infrastructure

requirements• Concepts of operations• Summary

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Introduction

• Preparedness for emergency response is needed because Accidents happen Preparedness helps save lives and minimize risks to health and

environment Response with preparedness costs less than response without it Response without preparedness can affect credibility of authorities

• The objectives of the lesson are to present goals, principles and basic concepts of emergency response in case of nuclear or radiological emergencies

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Objectives of Emergency Response

• To mitigate the consequences of an emergency or event at its origin

• To prevent the occurrence of deterministic effects in individuals

• To render first aid and to treat injuries• To reduce, using reasonable steps, the

occurrence of stochastic effects in the population

• To limit the occurrence of non-radiological effects in individuals and in the population

• To protect the environment and property

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Objectives of Emergency Preparedness

• To assure the capability to respond in a timely, effective, appropriate and coordinated manner to any nuclear or radiological emergency at all levels: • User or facility level• Local level• Regional level• National level• International level

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Basic Responsibilities

• Adequate preparations must be established and maintained at local and national and, where agreed between countries, at the international level to respond to emergencies

• The arrangements for emergency response actions both within and outside facilities, if applicable, or elsewhere under the control of the operator, are dealt with through the regulatory process

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Basic Responsibilities (cont’d)

• The regulatory body has to require that emergency plans be prepared for the on-site area for any practice or source, that could necessitate an emergency intervention

• The regulatory body must ensure that these plans are integrated with those of other response organizations as appropriate before the commencement of operation

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Basic Responsibilities (cont’d)

• The country must periodically ensure, by means of an appropriate organization, that a review is conducted in order to identify any practice or event that could necessitate an emergency intervention

• It must also ensure that an assessment of the radiological threat is conducted for those practices

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Assessment of Threats

• The nature and extent of emergency arrangements have to be commensurate with the potential magnitude and nature of the hazard associated with the facility or activity

• The threat assessment must be periodically reviewed to take into account changes in to the threats within and outside the country and the experience and lessons from previous events involving relevant practices and sources

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Assessment of Threats (cont’d)

• The threat assessment has to identify installations, sources, practices, on-site areas, off-site areas or locations for which nuclear or radiological emergencies could warrant:• precautionary urgent protective actions to prevent

severe deterministic health effects• urgent protective actions to reduce stochastic

effects• agricultural and ingestion countermeasures and

long term protective measures • protection for the workers undertaking an

intervention

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Threat Categories

• Nuclear and radiation threats are grouped according to the five threat categories• Categories I through IV represent decreasing levels of

threat and therefore decreasing emergency preparedness and response requirements

• Category IV is the minimum level of threat assumed to exist everywhere and thus always applies possibly along with other categories

• Category V is a special category and may apply along with other categories

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Threat Categories

Threat Category Radiological Threat

I Severe deterministic health effects off-site

IIWarranting urgent protective actions off-site, deterministic health effects on-site

IIINo urgent protective actions off-site are warranted, severe deterministic health effects on-site

IV Minimum level of threat – all countries

VFood contamination due to transboundary contamination necessitating food restrictions

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Threat Category I and II

• Power reactors and facilities with large amounts of spent fuel or dispersible radioactive material• Primary risk: atmospheric release

• Facilities with potential for uncontrolled criticalities• Primary risk: gamma and neutron shine dose

• On-site dose rates may be very high• (>10 Gy/h)• Beta emitter contamination• Serious detrimental psychological and economical

impact

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Threat Category III

• Reactors < 2 MW (th)• Irradiators, industrial radiography,

teletherapy, fuel fabrication, spent fuel storage, reprocessing of spent fuel• Primary risk: significant exposure on site (high

dose rates, beta emitter contamination)• No credible emergencies postulated for which

urgent off-site protective actions are warranted

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Threat Category IV

• Applies to emergencies involving• Uncontrolled sources• Transport• Severe overexposure• Terrorist threats or criminal activities

• Primary risk: overexposure, facility contamination, public contamination

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Threat Category V

• For areas within the food restriction radius for the affected facility in threat category I or II• Primary risk: country wide contamination• Restrictions on food and agricultural products

may be needed

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Planning Areas and Zones

• Areas• On-site area• Off-site area

• Zones• Precautionary Action Zone (PAZ)• Urgent Protective Action Planning Zone (UPZ)

• Food restrictions planning radius

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Concept of Emergency Planning Zones

National boarder

Country A

Country B

On-Site

PAZ

Facility

UPZ

Road (*)

* or other recognizableboundary

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Response and Planning Zones Sizes

Facility PAZ UPZ FRPD

Category I 0.5 – 5 km 5 – 25 km 50 – 250 km

Category II None 0.2 – 5 km 2 – 100 km

Category III None None None

PAZ – Precautionary Action ZoneUPZ – Urgent Protective Planning ZoneFRPR – Food Restrictions Planning Radius

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Planning Zone vs. Response Zones

• Planning Zones are for planning, i.e. this does not mean that protective actions will not be required outside those zones

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Planning Levels and Responsibilities

• Effective emergency response requires mutually supportive and integrated emergency planning at three levels:

• User• Off-site• International

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Responsibilities – User Level

• To mitigate the emergency• To protect people on-site• To notify off-site officials and providing them

with recommendations on protective actions and technical assistance

• To provide initial radiological monitoring

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Responsibilities – Off-site Level

• Local officials: to provide immediate support to the user and prompt protection to the public in the vicinity

• National and regional officials: to plan and response on the national level• to plan longer term protective actions• to support local officials in the event their

capabilities are exceeded

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Responsibilities – International Level

• To implement Notification and Assistance Convention• IAEA, countries “Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident” and

“Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency”. The parties to the Notification Convention commit to notify forthwith those countries that may be physically affected by an accident.

• To provide technical, humanitarian or medical assistance• UNDHA, WHO, others

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Emergency Classes and Conditions

• Response to an emergency requires rapid and coordinated response

• This can be accomplished by using internationally agreed classification system:• General emergency• Site area emergency• Facility emergency• Alert• Uncontrolled source emergency

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General EmergencyThreat Category I and II

• Should be declared when an actual or substantial risk of a release of radioactive material warranting immediate implementation of urgent protective actions off-site exists

• Actions should be promptly taken to:• mitigate the event• protect people on-site• protect people within PAZ and UPZ (as

appropriate)

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Site Area Emergency Threat Category I and II

• Should be declared when a major decrease in the level of protection for those on-site and near the facility occurs

• Actions should be promptly taken to:• mitigate the event• protect people on-site• make preparations to implement protective

actions off-site (if necessary)

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Facility Emergency Threat Category I, II and III

• Should be declared when a major decrease in the level of protection for workers on-site occurs

• Actions should be promptly taken to:• mitigate the event• protect people on-site

• Note: this class does not represent an off-site threat

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Alert Threat Category I, II and III

• Should be declared when an uncertain or significant decrease in the level of protection for the on-site personnel or the public occurs

• Actions should be promptly taken to:• Assess and mitigate the event• Increase the readiness of the on- and off-

site response organisations (as appropriate)

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Uncontrolled Source Emergency

• Occurs in case of lost, stolen or loss of control of a threat category IV dangerous sources

• First responders should take appropriate actions to minimise the consequences of emergency

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International Nuclear Event Scale – INES

• The emergency classification should not be confused with the International Nuclear Event Scale – INES

• INES is designed to indicate how serious an event was after it is understood and is NOT the basis for the response

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Preparedness and Response

• Two sets of requirements• Functional (response) requirements• Infrastructure (preparedness) requirements

• Infrastructure requirements must be fulfilled to ensure that functional requirements of response can be performed when needed

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Functional Requirements

• Establishing emergency management and operations

• Identifying, notifying and activating• Performing mitigatory actions• Taking urgent protective actions• Providing information and issuing

instructions and warnings to the public• Protecting emergency workers

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Functional Requirements (cont.)

• Assessing the initial phase • Managing the medical response• Keeping the public informed• Taking agricultural countermeasures,

countermeasures against ingestion and longer-term protective actions

• Mitigating the non-radiological consequences of the emergency and the response

• Conducting recovery operations

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Infrastructure Elements

• Authority• Organisation• Coordination• Plans and procedures• Logistical support and facilities• Quality assurance and programme

maintenance

Response objectives

Organisation

Quality assurance and programme

maintenance

Authority

Training, drills and exercises

Logistacal support and facilities

Plans and procedures

Co-ordination

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Integrated Planning Concept

• Response to radiation emergency may be caused by or may involve different types of hazards• Natural (e.G. Storms)• Technological (e.G. Radiation)• Biological• Criminal activity

• Plans and procedures for response to all hazards should be structured into coherent and interlocking system

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Integrated Planning Concept

NationalRadiation

EmergencyPlan

Local GovernmentEmergency Plans

ParticipatingOrganisations

Emergency Plans

Facilities (on-site)or Operators

Emergency Plans

Implementingprocedures

Implementingprocedures

Implementingprocedures

Other NationalEmergency

Plans

TopLevel

MiddleLevel

BottomLevel

National (All Hazards) Emergency Plan

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Concepts of OperationsThreat Category I

• The facility staff• Classifies the emergency• Notifies jurisdictions within PAZ and UPZ• Takes all possible actions to prevent or reduce the

release• Provides protective action recommendations to

off-site officials (within 15 min)• Rapidly monitor in PAZ and UPZ until relieved by

off-site officials

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Concepts of OperationsThreat Category I – cont’d

• Local officials• Provide police, fire fighting and medical assistance to

the site (if requested)• Decide on the protective actions for the public• Inform the public (within 1 hour)

• National level officials• Notify IAEA and other countries• Support the local officials• Conduct monitoring further from the site• Conduct joint media briefings • Coordinate longer-term protective actions

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Concepts of OperationsThreat Category II

• The facility staff• Classifies the emergency• Notifies jurisdictions within the UPZ• Takes all possible actions to prevent or

reduce the release or shine dose• Provides protective action

recommendations (within 15 min)• Monitor near the site until relieved by off-site

officials

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Concepts of OperationsThreat Category II – cont’d

• Local officials• Provide police, fire fighting and medical

assistance to the site (if requested)• Recommend, within 1 hour, protective actions to

the people within the UPZ• National level officials

• Support the local officials• Conduct monitoring further from the site• Conduct joint media briefings

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Concepts of OperationsThreat Category III

• The facility• Declares a facility emergency• Notifies local off-site officials• Ensures that all people on-site are provided with

appropriate protection• Conduct the environmental monitoring

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Concepts of OperationsThreat Category III – cont’d

• Local off-site officials• Provide police, fire fighting and medical

assistance to the site if requested• Inform the media

• National level officials• Support the local officials• Assist in obtaining specialised treatment through

the IAEA (if needed)• Conduct joint media briefings

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Concepts of OperationsThreat Category IV

• First responders• Take life saving actions• Notify local off-site officials

• Local officials take precautions to confine radioactive material and to protect people in the immediate vicinity

• National officials• Dispatch survey and response personnel• Request assistance through IAEA (if needed)• Brief the media

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Concepts of OperationsThreat Category V

• The country where the accident occurs notifies the potentially affected states

• Upon receipt of notification national officials• Provide instructions to the public and

farmers• Conduct monitoring and sampling• Develop programme to deal with long-term

impact

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Summary

• Accidents do happen• Concepts of emergency response are based

on ICRP principles and IAEA recommendations

• Good planning in advance of emergency can substantially improve the response

Chance favors prepared• The response to a radiation emergency is

basically the same as the response to any accident involving hazardous material