Nuclear Energy Agency To Organise
A Series Of International
Nuclear Emergency Exercises
On 7 November 1996, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency
(OECD/NEA) is to initiate a series of international nuclear emergency
exercises (INEX-2) involving specific Member country nuclear facilities.
The first of these exercises is to be conducted in conjunction with a
regional exercise (FORTUNA) in Switzerland and south-western Germany.
The sponsorship of such exercises by the OECD/NEA started in 1993 with
INEX-1.
The objectives of this first exercise
in the INEX-2 series are:
to test the communications systems to be used
in a real emergency for notification and exchange of information;
to test decision-making on countermeasures
in the early phase of an accident based on incomplete or uncertain information;
and
to test the communication of information to the public
in nuclear emergency situations.
The scenario for this exercise will
be based on a simulated accident at the Swiss nuclear power plant Leibstadt
situated on the Rhine, close to the German border. Twenty-eight countries
from Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and North America will participate,
and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission
(EC) will activate their accident notification systems.
This exercise will be followed by three
similar exercises in the INEX-2 series in 1997 and 1998, to be organised
in conjunction with regional exercises in Finland, Canada and Hungary.
