EXPERIENCE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE REGIONAL NETWORK IN THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN FOR THE DENIALS OF SHIPMENTS OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

The Regional Network in the Mediterranean Basin (Rome Group) was established in the framework of the Regional Networks created by the IAEA in response to a resolution by the 51st regular session of the IAEA General Conference as one of the actions to try to solve the problem of denials of shipments of transport of radioactive material. It was created during the workshop held in Rome (14 – 16 May 2008). The main objective of the Rome workshop was to develop a Regional Action plan on the basis of the general action plan established by the International Steering Committee taking into account the different characteristics and needs of the countries of the network to remove the causes of real or potential denials of shipments. The responsibility to coordinate the actions of the Regional Plan was assigned to the Regional Coordinators (France, Italy and Spain). One of the first action of the Regional Coordinators was to try to quantify the phenomena of denials in the Mediterranean Basin – particularly for sea transport – both by the data recorded into the IMO data base contained into the Global Integrate Shipping Information System (GISIS) and on the basis of a questionnaire that was distributed to the countries of the network. The experience of these two year of life of the Mediterranean network put in evidence the difficulties to act only at general level by lobbing, training, etc., to solve the phenomena of denials and encouraged to act also on case by case when the denial of shipment is reported by the operators. The paper will illustrate the actions and the results of two years of functioning of the Mediterranean Network.