The Use of Emergency Exercises to Promote a Culture of Security and Resilience in the Radioactive Material Transport Industry

The mission of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is to decommission and clean up the legacy of the UKs Civil Nuclear sites. As a subsidiary of the NDA, Direct Rail Services’ (DRS) strategy is to provide a long-term capability to meet the lifetime requirements of their 120-year nuclear mission. DRS, as a provider of nuclear transport services, must demonstrate and encourage the highest standards of security, conforming to the requirements of statutory regulatory bodies such as Office of Nuclear Regulation - Civil Nuclear Security (ONR-CNS), Department for Transport (DfT), Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Office of Rail and Road (ORR), and the NDA. As nuclear material leaves a highly secure nuclear licensed site this inevitably brings an increase to the risk of a security event occurring. Whilst security focus is integral to all activities in the nuclear industry, transportation of radioactive materials outside of licensed site boundaries onto public infrastructure brings with it different challenges. In the twenty-first century, security is one of the most tested industries due to the threat from international terrorism. Whilst intelligence suggests that, an attack against the civil nuclear industry is low; a physical or cyber-attack against the transport industry remains a significant risk. DRS lead or participate in a number of emergency exercises providing our trained commanders and 24/7 control room personnel with an opportunity to practice using our emergency/incident response plans. Emergency exercises are scenario based around a plausible incident, these have included: Major fuel spillage, Protestor activity, Major incidents on CAT-III nuclear services. DRS have well-rehearsed and exercised procedures when dealing with incidents on any of its train services, locations or facilities around the country, with emphasis on the movement of nuclear material by rail. The procedures incorporate lessons learnt from previous exercises, incidents and any changes in regulation or legislation. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how the implementation and practice of security and resilience exercises mitigate risk, improve decision-making and enhance operational reliability to satisfy regulatory requirements, whilst promulgating and promoting a positive security and resilience culture to provide an effective and robust response to any emergency scenario.