Emergency preparedness

1. Basics of Nuclear and Radiological
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Presented By
Dr. Ananda Kumar Das
Director, Training Institute
AERE, Savar Dhaka
Training Course on Radiation Protection for Radiation Workers and RCOs of
BAEC, Medical Facilities and Industries.
24-28 October, 2021

2. 1. Introduction
2. Nuclear/Radiological Accident
3. Nuclear/Radiological Emergency Basics
4. Emergency types, response planning and
responsibility
5. Emergency Management Organization and
Infrastructure
6. Bangladesh Perspectives
7. Conclusions
Contents

3. Emergency Management
Emergency Management is the application of the necessary
resources to mitigate consequences of an emergency and
protect workers, the public, the environment, and national
security.
It consists of key activities: planning, preparedness, readiness
assurance and response.
Emergency
An emergency is any unwanted operational (large scale
accidents), civil (mass agitation), natural calamities (earthquake,
cyclone, flood), or security occurrence (war situation) that could
endanger or adversely affect the health and safety of workers,
the public, and/or the environment.
1. Introduction

4. Introduction..
Preparedness
Refers to various actions of planning, organizing, training, and
exercising (with proper equipment and personnel) that are taken
in advance at normal times and can be adopted promptly upon
the occurrence of an emergency.
Response
Refers to measures to be taken upon the occurrence of an
emergency with various actions of preventing continual
deterioration of the situation and protecting the safety, health
properties of the public and the environment.

5. (a) Nuclear emergencies may occur at:
— Nuclear Power Reactors;
— Large irradiation facilities (e.g., industrial irradiators);
— Nuclear reactors (research reactors, ship etc.);
— Storage facilities for large quantities of spent fuel
— Fuel cycle facilities (e.g. fuel processing plants);
— Industrial facilities (e.g. facilities of radiopharmaceuticals);
— Research or medical facilities with large fixed sources.
Two types of emergencies
1. Nuclear (arise in nuclear installations)
2. Radiological (related to radioactive sources)
Type of Emergency

6. (b) Radiological emergencies include:
1. Sources
— Uncontrolled (abandoned or lost) dangerous sources;
— Misuse of industrial and medical dangerous sources;
— Detection of medical over-exposure;
— Public exposures and contamination;
— Nuclear weapons;
—Re-entry of a satellite containing radioactive material.
2. Transport emergencies
3. Serious overexposures
4. Terrorist threats and/or criminal activities
Introduction..

7. Major Nuclear and radiological Accidents
happened all over the world
Nuclear
1. Fukushima (Japan, 2011)
2. Chernobyl (USSR, 1986)
2. Three Mile Island (USA, 1979)
Radiological
1. Mexico City (Mexico, 1962, lost source, 8 deaths)
2. Ohio (USA, 1974, radiotherapy source, 10 deaths)
3. Goiania (Brazil, 1987, lost radiography source, 5 deaths)
4. Zaragoza (Spain, 1990, radiotherapy accident, 18 deaths)
5. Panama City (Panama, radiotherapy accident, 17 deaths)
2. Nuclear/ Radiological Accident

8. 1. Nuclear Accident: Fukushima , Japan, 2011
When: March 11 , 2011
Where: Fukushima Daiichi NPS Unit-1, -2, -3 and unit-4
Operation Situation:
Operation: Unit-1,-2, -3, Inspection: Unit-4
Accident Type:
Sever Accident by LOCA (Loss of Coolant Accident)
INES (International Event Scale): Level-7 (Worst Level)
Victims by the Accident:
-Died: Zero
-Radiation Exposure for Worker: (>600mSv: 2 persons,
>100mSv: 167 persons)
-Radiation Public Members:
Less than 1mSv: >99.9% (among 52,557 persons)
Environmental Influence:
Existing difficult to Return Back Zone: > 50mSv/y
Impact to Society:
Serious Influence on NPS Operation in JAPAN
Establishment of New Safety Regulation Standard

9. 2. Nuclear Accident: Chernobyl, USSR, 1986
Place: Chernobyl, Ukrane, USSR
Time: 26 April, 1986
Accident Type: Explosion of Reactor
Direct Death: 237 suffered from acute
dose and 31 died within a month
Cancer Induced Death: 4000
Total exposure: 600000
Resettled: 336000
Affected area: Western S. Union, Whole
of Europe and most affected states are
Belarus and Ukraine. About 60% of the
fallout landed in Belarus.

10. 3. Nuclear Accident: TMI, USA, 1989
Place: Three Mile Island, Middletown, Pennsylvania, USA
Date: March 28, 1979
Accident Type: Core Meltdown
Direct Death: No
Acute Exposure: No
Hazard Type: Noble gas and I-131
Evacuation: 140000
TMI plant before accident TMI plant after accident (Unit-2, left)

11. Radioactive Waste Transport Accident Nuclear Weapon Test
Scenarios of Radiological Accidents
Radioactive Material Transport and Accident

12. A major accident in Goiânia, Brazil-1987
Hospital History
June 1971
~ end 1985
September 1987
Licenced by CNEN
Medical partnership
Private clinic
Teletherapy, 137Cs, 60Co
Ceased operating
Disputes over ownership
Removal/rupture of 137Cs source

13. Similar unit

14. Goiânia : Health Consequences
249 contaminated externally
129 internal contamination
21 > 1 Gy and in hospital
10 specialised medical care
4 died
recontamination

15. Goiania - summary
Abandoned 51 TBq caesium-137 source
Source recovered and taken home by two men
Source punctured causing contamination
Pieces of ‘glow in the dark’ source taken and
played with in several homes
Incident resulted in 249 persons being
significantly contaminated, 11 persons with
severe radiation sickness (4 died)
Extensive decontamination

16. Effect of Nuclear Accident
Health and Environmental Hazards
The plume of radiation released by
Chernobyl accident settled on trees
killing areas of pine trees what is now
called the Red Forest.
The health and environmental effects of Nuclear incidents occur in
much larger scale. However, the effects of radiological incidents are
much lower than the nuclear incidents.
Children suffered from the thyroid
cancer after Chernobyl accident

17. Two questions arises from two historic severe nuclear accidents:
(1) Why, as a result of the Chernobyl release, did 1000 or more
children suffer from thyroid cancer that could have been easily
avoided?
(2) Why were actions of the operators partly the cause of the melting
of the core during the accident at Three Mile Island?
The answer to the first question is that the authorities under-reacted
because of lack of preparedness. The answer to the second
question is that the operators were not trained for the conditions
they faced. In both cases, the basic cause was that no one thought
it was worth preparing in advance for such low probability
emergencies.
3. Nuclear/Radiological Emergency Basics

18. Response goal is:
— To mitigate accident at the scene
— To prevent the occurrence of deterministic health effects
— To render first aid and to manage the treatment of injuries
— To reasonably reduce the stochastic health effects
— To protect the property and the environment
— To prepare for the resumption of normal social and economic
activity
Objectives: Emergency Preparedness and Response
Preparedness goal is:
— To ensure that arrangements are in place to protect
 Public health
 Public welfare and the environment
— To develop and implement
 Justified and optimized countermeasures in a timely, managed, controlled,
coordinated and effective way
Emergency preparedness helps to build confidence that an
emergency response would be managed, controlled and coordinated
effectively.

19. Types of Health Effects in Emergencies
Deterministic Effect:
Is a fatal or life threatening or results in a permanent injury
Has a threshold level of dose
Threshold differs for different organs
Thresholds are one or more Gys
Stochastic Effect
The probability of occurrence increases with dose
No threshold level of dose
Cause cancers and hereditary effects

20. International Nuclear Event Scale
4. Emergency Types, Response Planning and
Responsibility

21. Emergency Types, Response Planning and
Responsibility..
General Emergency
Site Area Emergency
Plant Emergency
Standby Emergency
Four types of radiation emergency situations
may arise in nuclear installations
I. Standby Emergency (Alert)
II. Plant Emergency (Local/Facility)
III. Site Area Emergency
IV. General Emergency
I. Standby Emergency:
The emergency situation in which events are in progress or have occurred
indicate a potential degradation of safety at facility. Staff members are put on
stand-by and all agencies monitor the situation. This may arise in nuclear and
radiological facilities.
II. Plant Emergency:
The emergency situation in which radiological consequences are likely to be
confined to a limited area of the facility. This may arise in nuclear and
radiological facilities. Emergency agencies are notified and asked to stay in
touch.

22. Emergency Types..
III. Site Area Emergency:
The emergency situation involving an accidental release of radioactive
material extending beyond the plant boundary. Site area emergency is
declared if there is problem with the plant safety system. Members of public
should be alerted. This may arise in nuclear facilities.
IV. General Emergency:
The emergency situation in which consequences of the emergency extend
beyond the site boundary. A general emergency is declared when an event
at the plant has caused a loss of several safety systems that could lead to
release of radiation. This may arise in nuclear facilities.
All agencies and organizations involved in radiological emergency
preparedness are notified, all emergency operation centers are activated,
and all pre-designated agency personnel and resources are deployed.

23. Emergency Response Planning Areas and Zones
On-site Area
Area under the control of the operator or first responders. For nuclear
facilities the on-site area is the area surrounding the facility within the
security perimeter, fence or other designated property marker.
Off-site Area
Area beyond that area under the control of the facility, operator or first
responders. It applies for the nuclear facilities only.
Applies to nuclear facilities and is the area within which arrangements should
be made to implement precautionary urgent protective actions before or
shortly after a major release with the aim of preventing the occurrence of
severe deterministic effects.
Precautionary action zone (PAZ)

24. Emergency Response Planning Areas and Zones…
Applies to nuclear facilities. Preparations are made to promptly shelter in
place, to perform environmental monitoring and to implement urgent
protective actions on the basis of monitoring results within a few hours of
accident.
Urgent protective action planning zone (UPZ)
Facilities PAZ
radius
UPZ
radius
Food restriction
radius
Reactors> 1000 MWth 3-5 km 25 km 300 km
Reactors> 100-1000 MWth 0.5-3 km 5-25 km 50-300 km
Reactors 10-100 MWth None 0.5-5km 5-50 km
Reactors 2-10 MWth None 0.5 km 2-5 km
Suggested Nuclear emergency zones and radius sizes

25. Areas and Zones during Radiological Emergency

26. Responsibility during Nuclear Emergency
Responsibilities are typically
assigned at three levels:
1. On-site
2. Off-site and
3. International
1. The operator is responsible for on-site
area under emergency. The responsibilities are:
■ Identifying and/or detecting an emergency or hazard;
■ Taking immediate action to mitigate the consequences;
■ Protecting individuals on the site;
■ Declaring the class of the emergency;
■ Notifying off-site officials and providing them technical assistance;
■ Establishing communication with off-site officials;
■ Assisting the off-site officials in keeping the public informed;
■ Providing initial radiological monitoring and technical advice.

27. Emergency Response Infrastructure
- Authority
- Organization
- Co-ordination
- Plans & procedures
- Logistical support
- Training, drills & exercises
- Quality assurance program
Infrastructure for Emergency Response
Function

28. Emergency Logistic Support
Emergency
Response
Centre with
Necessary
Facility
Radiological Emergency Equipment

29. Internal and National level & with Predefined frequency.
The objective of which is:
Training, Drill and Exercise
Training
1. Personnel should be trained to ensure efficient and effective role in
implementation of emergency plan
2. Help familiarization & understanding of emergency and hands-on
training in use of equipment.
Drills and Exercise
1. To check the effectiveness of the emergency plans establish the
basis of its review.
2. To check the effectiveness of the personnel emergency training
and hence review the training program if required.
3. To check the effectiveness of the plant personnel training in their
particular response during emergency.
4. To check the effectiveness of the on-site and off-site emergency
plan and organization.

30. Training, Drill and Exercise
Internal Level

31. 6. Bangladesh Perspectives
Sources of Probable Nuclear and Radiological
Emergency in Bangladesh
• Research reactor
• Hospitals & NMCs– using radioactive sources
• Commercial irradiator (e.g., IRPT)
• Industries and research institutes
• Space debris from nuclear powered satellites
• Transportation of radioactive materials or wastes
• Sabotage or nuclear terrorism such as dirty bomb
• Nuclear powered carrier or submarine when berths at
harbour
Industrial
Radiography
Gauging
Medical
Sources
Research
Reactor

32. Legal Basis for Emergency Management
in Bangladesh
• Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory (BAER) Act-2012
Nuclear Safety & Radiation Control (NSRC) Rules-1997
but have no integrated national emergency management
program.
• There are safety analysis report (SAR) for the research
reactor (RR) which includes preparedness and response
program for RR.
• National Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Response
(NNRER) Plan draft has been formulated.

33.  Conduction of Integrated Emergency Preparedness and
Response Program at National Level
 Establishment of National Nuclear and Radiological
Emergency Control Center
 Skilled manpower should be developed in the Nuclear
and Radiological establishments.
 Concerned personnel should be always alert about the
matter.
Conclusions

34. Thank you
very much