AW: [ RadSafe ] Romania hosts nuclear disaster simulation

[Franz Schönhofer]

John,

Today is May 16. The international exercise is over since quite a few days.
Sandy Perle has forwarded news about the results recently. I am proud to
say, that I have contributed to the surveillance system at Cernovoda as an
IAEA technical expert about ten years ago. 

Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319


> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im
> Auftrag von John Jacobus
> Gesendet: Montag, 16. Mai 2005 16:35
> An: radsafe; know_nukes at yahoogroups.com
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Romania hosts nuclear disaster simulation
> 
> >From Nature published online: 9 May 2005.  The link is
> at the end of this posting.
> -------------
> 
> Romania hosts nuclear disaster simulation
> Michael Hopkin
> 
> International exercise will test communication lines
> in event of catastrophe.
> 
> PICTURE:  Cernavoda, Romania's only nuclear power
> plant, is set for a fake emergency.
> © DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images
> 
> A nuclear power station in Romania will be the scene
> of a full-scale emergency operation this week, albeit
> a simulated one. Officials at the International Atomic
> Energy Agency (IAEA) will lead a team of eight
> agencies and 62 countries in testing responses to a
> Chernobyl-style nuclear accident.
> 
> The 39-hour operation will begin on 11 May at the
> Cernavoda power plant in eastern Romania. After a
> pretend accident, officials will enact reporting the
> emergency, evaluating necessary health measures for
> those exposed, and tracking weather patterns to see
> where the fallout will land and which neighbouring
> countries should be notified.
> 
> The exercise is a chance to test international
> communication lines, says Malcolm Crick, head of the
> IAEA's Emergency Preparedness and Response Unit in
> Vienna, Austria, from where officials will oversee the
> exercise. "We will be looking at how we coordinate
> requests for information and advice," he says.
> 
> The IAEA and its collaborators aim to simulate a
> nuclear disaster once every four years; the last was
> held in 2001 in the town of Gravelines, on the north
> coast of France. "It's a big event for us," says
> Crick. "It's like the Olympic Games; we don't go any
> bigger than this."
> 
> Although IAEA member states hold regular domestic
> safety drills, Crick adds, the chance to test
> readiness on an international scale is a valuable one.
> 
> Documented leak
> 
> Wednesday's proceedings will begin at an unspecified
> time in the morning, when the IAEA's Incident and
> Emergency Centre will receive details of a fictitious
> leak of radioactive matter from the plant. It will
> then notify collaborators including the World Health
> Organization (WHO), the European Commission, the World
> Meteorological Organization, NATO and Interpol. Real
> weather forecasts will be used to track the path that
> a release of fallout would take.
> 
> The response to a major leak, like the one following
> the explosion at the Chernobyl plant in the former
> Soviet Union in 1986, depends on effective
> communication, says Zhanat Carr, coordinator of the
> WHO's Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness and
> Assistance Network. "No matter how ready you are, if
> there's no communication the response will not work,"
> she says.
> 
> Carr's network consists of some 30 centres around the
> world, which are ready to dispense medical advice or
> dispatch a health consultant to the scene of an
> emergency if requested. Such consultants are prepared
> to make decisions such as whether to administer
> potassium iodide tablets to prevent thyroid damage in
> those exposed to fallout.
> 
> Meanwhile, Romanian domestic officials will check
> their own readiness to deal with a radiation leak, by
> staging an evacuation of nearby villages and testing
> lines of communication to countries that would be
> affected.
> 
> Story from news at nature.com:
> http://news.nature.com//news/2005/050509/050509-3.html
> 
> 
>   © 2004 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++
> "Embarrassed, obscure and feeble sentences are generally, if not always,
> the result of embarrassed, obscure and feeble thought."
> Hugh Blair, 1783
> 
> -- John
> John Jacobus, MS
> Certified Health Physicist
> e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com
> 
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