INEX and the NEA programme in international nuclear emergency matters

Since the accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979, and more especially Chernobyl in 1986, many countries have intensified their efforts in emergency planning and preparedness for nuclear accidents. As a result of this interest by its member countries, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been actively involved in this area. The International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX 1) is an outgrowth of a variety of NEA emergency planning and preparedness activities. In 1993, a total of 16 countries participated in this tabletop exercise, which focused on the international aspects of nuclear accidents. The conclusions and recommendations from INEX 1 in the areas of communications, monitoring and database management, assistance, cross-border issues, short-term countermeasures, long-term countermeasures, agricultural issues, and decision making are briefly discussed, as are those of the three NEA workshops which were organised based on these INEX 1 recommendations. As further follow-up to INEX 1, and based on recommendations from the NEA 1 exercise and from the three workshops, the NEA is currently planning INEX 2. Four regional exercises in the INEX 2 series are currently scheduled, including the Swiss (November 1996), Finnish (April 1997), Canadian (April 1998), and Hungarian (summer/fall 1998) regional exercises. The objectives of these exercises will evolve with the experience of each, but the first two are to exercise the international aspects of real-time information exchange, using real meteorological conditions, to exercise decision making based on plant condition information, and to exercise the public information component of a nuclear emergency. Each regional exercise will include the simultaneous participation of an Accident-Host country, who will superimpose the INEX 2 requirements on an existing national level command post exercise, Border countries, and Far-Field countries.