The course on "Preparedness and response for nuclear and radiological emergencies" addresses the state of the art in nuclear and radiological emergency management including the latest international recommendations, the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident and the challenges we still face. The main objective is to provide fundamental knowledge and practical advice to all actors involved in emergency planning and response.
The course is organized by the SCK•CEN Academy for Nuclear Science and Technology, in the framework of the H2020 CONCERT project, in collaboration with the main European emergency management actors and the European platform NERIS (Preparedness for Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Response and Recovery.
Main topics in the course are the principles of intervention; radiological evaluations; decision-support tools; different aspects of planning and organization in off-site emergency response; economic, social and psychological impact; communication and stakeholder involvement; European Community legislation; and international data and information exchange. Group activities are organised to explore in depth several aspects presented during the course lectures. A comprehensive table-top exercise simulating a nuclear accident will be used to involve participants in the decision-making process and confront them with the real difficulties. A technical visit of several points of interest in SCK•CEN may be also foreseen for the interested participants.
This combination of theory, practice, tools and experience will help you and your organization to:
Carry out radiological assessments;
Deal with the complexity of the situation in terms of its radiological, social and legal dimensions;
Apply state of the art knowledge in decision-making processes related to nuclear and radiological emergencies;
Assume a role in an emergency management team;
Be ready to respond to a nuclear or radiological event.
The course is mainly targeted towards technical and radiological advisors, staff responsible for the overall emergency organization and policy, either entering the domain or being interested in refreshing the basics and getting acquainted with latest developments in the field. The target audience also includes young investigators (e.g. Master or PhD students) in fields connected to emergency management (e.g. atmospheric dispersion and deposition, dose assessment, decision-supporting tools) and professionals wishing to develop a career in the field of emergency management, e.g. by acting as technical and radiological advisors to the authorities.
Lectures are given in English by experts with international recognition in the domain, from SCK•CEN and other organisations with leading roles in nuclear and radiological emergency management at European level.
The training course on “Assessment of long-term radiological risks from environmental releases: modelling and measurements”, 5-16 March 2018, Roskilde, Denmark is organised by the Center for Nuclear Technologies at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in cooperation with PDC-ARGOS. The training course is co-funded by the European Joint Programme for the Integration of Radiation Protection Research CONCERT.
The course is aimed at providing the participants with an understanding of how to assess by measurements and modelling the long-term radiological risks from releases to the environment of radionuclides. Nuclear power plant accidents will particularly be in focus, but RDD’s will be considered.
The course builds on decades of international research work, e.g., in European projects such as ECP-4, STRATEGY, EURANOS, NERIS TP and PREPARE, including unique experience from extensive practical investigations in contaminated areas and laboratory assessments. It comprises a hands-on introduction to laboratory measurement techniques including state-of-the-art radiochemistry methods for determination of radionuclides that can not easily be determined. It also includes a hands-on decision support modelling session using a state-of-the-art computerised decision support system for nuclear and radiological emergency management.
The course will provide insight into:
· Assessment of long-term radiological risks from releases to the environment · Theoretical principles of dosimetry · Implications of different contamination scenario types · Migration of radioactive contaminants in different types of environment · Modelling internal dose and specific factors influencing ingestion dose · Modelling external dose in contaminated inhabited areas · Decision support systems for accident management · Important concepts in sampling and gamma spectrometry · Radiochemical analysis for radionuclides that are difficult to measure · Rapid radiochemistry techniques for multiple samples
Target audience
The targeted audience is PhD students and young scientists / advisors. The course is expected to give students 2.5 ECTS points.
Location
Roskilde (Denmark)
For further information, please download the flyer here and do not hesitate to contact Per Roos (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Kasper G. Andersson (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) at DTU.
Registration : Deadline on 15th of January 2018. Limited to 12 participants
There is no registration fee. Participants are expected to cover their own travel and subsistence costs (e.g., meals, hotel, visa if needed)
Within Work Package 4 (Strategic and integrated communication, education and training) of the TERRITORIES (To Enhance unceRtainties Reduction and stakeholders Involvement TOwards integrated and graded Risk management of humans and wildlife In long-lasting radiological Exposure Situations) project, one of the objectives is to identify and communicate to appropriate audiences the existing capabilities, key uncertainties, needs and knowledge gaps in radiological risk assessment and management for humans and wildlife in long-lasting radiological exposure situations. To reach this objective, a number of workshops will be organised through the 3 years of the project. The TERRITORIES project has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 in the framework of the CONCERT EJP [grant agreement No 662287].
In 2017, two workshops will be organised:
Workshop one: Key factors contributing to uncertainties in radiological risk assessment, which objective is to discuss the key factors contributing to overall uncertainties when linking deposition and ecosystem transfer to human and ecosystem radiological risk assessment models, obtaining feedback from modellers, experimentalists and stakeholders on this subject. Download the agenda here
Workshop two:Communication of uncertainties of radiological risk assessments to stakeholders, which objective is to discuss the implications and relevance of uncertainties in radiological risk assessments for different stakeholders and how these uncertainties can be better communicated, obtaining feedback from regulators, industry, scientists and “public/social sciences” on this subject. Download the agenda here
Both workshops will be held in Oslo, Norway, November 14-16th 2017. Since both workshops are strongly connected, people are encouraged to participate in both of them.
Please fill out the registration form by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before September 29th 2017.
In the unlikely but not impossible case of a future nuclear accident, what should be done – or not - to improve the health surveillance and living conditions of affected populations without generating collateral damage or unnecessary anxiety? This is what the EC-funded project SHAMISEN has tried to address over the last 18 months with an analysis of lessons learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima. The result is a document with 28 recommendations to improve the preparedness and response to a radiation accident, including for each recommendation a ‘why’ (based on lessons learned) a ‘how’, and a ‘who’ (those responsible of implementing the recommendation).
The document highlights the importance of planning the response “in times of peace” and includes recommendations to improve training of professionals, establish disease registries to know whether these diseases increase after the accident, and establish evacuation protocols and routes if necessary. Recommendations ‘during’ the response include providing timely and reliable information on the accident situation and associated risks, and ensuring collection of radiation dose data. For the ‘after’, the main recommendations include establishing a dialogue between experts and affected communities with the help of local facilitators, and providing support to populations that wish to make their own dose measurements so they can take informed decisions (e.g. what food they eat or if and when they return to their homes). Recommendations also include providing health screening of populations on a voluntary basis and with adequate counselling to avoid unnecessary anxiety, and launching long-term public health studies only when informative and sustainable over time. All recommendations were developed taking into consideration the cross-cutting issue of ethics and the involvement of local stakeholders, including the population.
The 13th issue of the NERIS Newsletter is now available. This edition is dedicated to the new european research projects CONFIDENCE & TERRITORIES as well as the final SHAMISEN Workshop, held in Paris last March.
Emergency exposure situations can arise as a result of a nuclear accident, a malicious or terrorist act, or any other unexpected radiological event. It requires a quick response and sustainable countermeasures and remedial actions in order to avoid or reduce adverse short-term and long-term consequences. Radiation exposures can be received by the public, first responders, workers and volunteers engaged in the post-accident recovery.
The ICRP recommendations and European Basic Safety Standards – the bases for national regulations - re-emphasize the principle of optimisation (ALARA) as applying to emergency exposure situations. For the purpose of radiological protection, reference levels for emergency exposure situations should be set. More importantly, it is necessary to establish emergency plans based on an optimum protection strategy, resulting in more good than harm for the exposed people and the affected territories. In that perspective, lessons learnt from the Fukushima accident are of utmost importance.
The objectives of the workshop are:
To show, in particular from the experience of Fukushima accident, the challenges posed by the optimisation of exposures in emergency and post-accident situations;
To review the national arrangements for assessing, monitoring and mitigating the radiological consequences of an emergency, especially with regard to applying the ALARA principle to public and occupational exposures;
To review the arrangements for managing emergency doses to workers;
To review the arrangements for providing ALARA-based training for the different types of stakeholders who would be engaged in the emergency response and long-term recovery actions.
The workshop will consist of presentations (oral and posters) intended to highlight the main issues, and a significant part of the program will be devoted to discussions within working groups. From these discussions, participants will be expected to produce recommendations on ALARA in emergency exposure situations, which are addressed to relevant local, national and international stakeholders.
For further information, please visit the EAN Website.
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