EMERGENCY RESPONSE WITHOUT BORDERS

he IAEA Safety Guide TS-G-1.2 (ST3) provides guidance to the many organisations, including consignors and transporters, on the subject of planning and preparing for Emergency Response to transport accidents involving radioactive material. The guide details responsibilities for both the consignor and the carrier for preparedness, assistance, provision of information and the alerting of appropriate authorities of an event. The Emergency Response function of International Nuclear Services is part of a fully integrated emergency management system. The six building blocks of this approach are Mitigation, Prevention, Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Review. The transport activities of International Nuclear Services are carried out across the globe and this in itself introduces challenges to the Emergency Response function which are not usually encountered by the emergency agencies that operate only within the borders of their host nation. Some of these challenges include time differences, language barriers, country specific special laws, coastal state concerns and expectations, training and exercising, contracting services, response times and the demonstration of this planning and preparedness to both regulators and stakeholders. The object of this paper will be to review and discuss these challenges and detail how the solutions to these have been integrated into the Emergency Response function whilst meeting the responsibilities laid out in the guide (ST3). One of the most crucial parts of the International Nuclear Services’ Emergency Response capability is to have personnel and equipment ready to deploy within and outside of the UK 24hrs a day, 365 days per year to deal with the unlikely occurrence of an event during its transport activities. During August 2009 International Nuclear Services undertook a live exercise to deploy two teams and associated equipment overseas utilising the full range of resources and services that were both internal and external to the organisation. This paper will review the results of this exercise and highlight recommendations for the further development and improvement of the Emergency Response function.