Under the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, the IAEA has the function of collecting and dis­seminating to state parties and member states information concerning methodologies, techniques and available results of research relating to response to such emergencies. One of the actions undertaken by the IAEA to fulfilling its functions has been issuing several safety standards and rec­ommendations on preparedness and response to nuclear and radiological emergencies, as a significant part of its Safety Standards Series.

The Safety Standards Series are issued by the IAEA, hereafter the Agency, in compliance with the terms of Article III of its Statute. This statu­tory provision authorizes the Agency, in cooperation with other relevant international organizations, to establish standards of safety for protection against ionizing radiation and to provide for the application of these stand­ards to peaceful nuclear activities. The Safety Standards Series is composed of all regulatory related publications issued by the Agency, which covers nuclear safety, radiation safety, transport safety and waste safety, and also general safety that is of relevance in two or more of the four areas. These standards are not legally binding on Member States but may be adopted by them, at their own discretion, for use in national regulations in respect of their own activities. However, they are binding on the Agency in relation to its own operations and on states in relation to operations assisted by the Agency.

The Safety Standards Series is a set of publications structured in three

levels:

• Safety Fundamentals set up basic objectives, concepts and principles of safety and protection in the development and application of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

• Safety Requirements establish the requirements that must be met to ensure safety. These requirements, which are expressed as ‘shall’ state­ments, are governed by the objectives and principles presented in the Safety Fundamentals.

• Safety Guides recommend actions, conditions or procedures for meeting safety requirements. Recommendations in Safety Guides are expressed as ‘should’ statements, with the implication that it is necessary to take the measures recommended or equivalent alternative measures to comply with the requirements.

Many publications in the Safety Standards Series include rules and rec­ommendations applicable to the nuclear emergency preparedness and response. The most recent restructuring of the series, dated 2006, considers nuclear and radiological emergencies as a general safety topic that has to be taken into account in every nuclear radiation facility or activity and it is treated at all level of the safety documents.

Principle 9 of the Fundamental Safety Principles is the basis for the standards and recommendations on nuclear emergency matters in the Safety Standards Series. Principle 9 is titled: ‘Arrangements must be made for emergency preparedness and response for nuclear or radiation inci­dents’ (IAEA, 2006, p. 14). According to this safety principle (IAEA, 2006, paragraph 3.34) the primarily goals of preparedness and response for a nuclear emergency are:

• ‘To ensure that arrangements are in place for an effective response at the scene and, as appropriate, at the local, regional, national and inter­national levels, to a nuclear or radiation emergency;

• To ensure that, for reasonably foreseeable incidents, radiation risks would be minor;

• For any incidents that do occur, to take practical measures to mitigate any consequences for human life and health and the environment.’

The scope and extent of arrangements for emergency preparedness and response have to reflect the likelihood and the possible consequences of a nuclear or radiation emergency, the characteristics of the radiation risks, and the nature and location of the facilities and activities.

The recommendations of the ICRP on nuclear and radiation emergency matters (ICRP, 1991) are the main basis of the Agency radiation safety standards, and its principles and recommendations are endorsed by the Agency in the document International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (IAEA, 1996b) that is undergoing a deep revision, now in an advanced stage of development, which will be issued as a Generic Safety Requirement (GRS Part 3). The Basic Safety Standards are also based on assessments of the biological effects of irradiation made by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, UNSCEAR, and on the recommendations of the Agency’s International Nuclear Safety Group, INSAG.

The Basic Safety Standards were co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, the International Labour Organization, ILO, the Nuclear Energy Agency, NEA, the Pan­American Health Organization, PAHO, and the World Health Organization, WHO, and represent an international consensus on qualitative and quanti­tative requirements for protection and safety for planned practices such as nuclear power generation and also for intervention in existing situations such as exposure following an accident. It is the most relevant international reference to establish national and regional regulation on radiological pro­tection on, among other relevant topics, occupational radiation protection, protection of the public and the environment from exposure to radioactive materials released to the environment, prevention of incidents giving rise to potential exposures, and intervention in a radiological emergency.

The Basic Safety Standards set out the basic requirements for nuclear and radiological emergency management, providing radiological criteria applicable to emergency response. They are established under the belief that, in most cases after a nuclear or radiological accident, emergency actions are needed if dose rates generated by the accident or the doses that can be prevented by applying emergency measures can lead to significant radiation injury. The Basic Safety Standards also provide guidelines for the implementation of the optimization principle to the measures to be applied in an emergency.

According to the Basic Safety Standards, the protective actions imple­mented to respond to an emergency situation should be oriented to protect individuals potentially affected by the accident, which includes the emer­gency workers and members of the public. Implementation of protective actions should be based on intervention levels expressed in terms of doses that can be avoided with the intervention, considering different exposure pathways, including direct irradiation by radiation emission coming from radioactive contamination of air, soil or water. The decision to implement any countermeasure should be based on the circumstances that actually exist when an emergency happens and, if possible, be taken in anticipation of a possible radioactive release better than when the issue has been con­firmed. The main protective actions recommended to protect individuals are sheltering and evacuation or prophylaxis with stable iodine to prevent internal contamination with radioactive iodine, of people potentially affected by an accidental release. In some special cases, decontamination of individuals and goods could be recommended to reduce the dose and spread of contamination to non-affected areas.

The Basic Safety Standards also give recommendations to prevent chronic exposure by controlling the use of contaminated land and facilities and the consumption of contaminated food and water. Reference levels set up by the FAO-WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission (FAO-WHO, 1991) are recommended to adopt such decisions. In some cases, these countermeasures should be implemented after a careful optimization process taking into account the averted dose and the social and economic consequences of implementing such measures. In this regard, reasonable steps have to be taken to assess exposure incurred by members of the public as a consequence of a nuclear accident, and the results of this assessment should be made public and periodically updated to optimize the implementation of protective measures, until conditions allow the implementation of protective actions according to intervention levels to be discontinued.

In 2002, the Agency issued a Safety Requirements document (IAEA, 2002) specifically applicable to preparedness and response for a nuclear or radiological emergency, which incorporates and establishes requirements so that emergency management can be seen in its entirety by the bodies concerned. This document was co-sponsored by the above-mentioned inter­national organizations and the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which were concerned with the harmful potential consequences of nuclear accidents, as a result of the large impact of the Chernobyl accident.

These Safety Requirements compile, organize and augment all the requirements relating to emergency management established in other pub­lications of the Agency. The Safety Requirements are applicable to all those nuclear and radiation practices and sources that have the potential for causing radiation exposure or environmental radioactive contamination warranting an emergency intervention, particularly to facilities hosting nuclear reactors and other nuclear fuel cycle facilities.

The Safety Requirements establish requirements for an adequate level of preparedness and response for a nuclear or radiological emergency in any State. Their implementation is intended to minimize the consequences for people, property and the environment of any nuclear or radiological emergency. The fulfilment of these requirements also contributes to the harmonization of arrangements in the event of a transnational emergency. These requirements are intended to be applied by authorities at the national level by means of adopting legislation, establishing regulations and assign­ing responsibilities, and also apply to the off-site jurisdictions that may need to make an emergency intervention in a State.

The Agency also provides recommendations for the implementation of these Safety Requirements in a Safety Guide (IAEA, 2007), which is intended to assist Member States in the application of the Safety Requirements on Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency, and to help in fulfilling the Agency obligations under the Assistance Convention. The Safety Guide provides basic concepts that must be understood to apply the guidance and to meet the requirements, dis­cusses the concept of operations, and describes in general terms how the response should proceed for different types of emergency.

These standards and recommendations are complemented with a series of technical documents, called Emergency Preparedness and Response, oriented to assist Member States in the development of their own capacities to respond to nuclear and radiological emergencies (IAEA, 2003a). This series provides recommendations to establish suitable methods for, among other relevant topics, developing arrangements for response to a nuclear accident; organization and training of first responders to a nuclear emer­gency; preparing, conducting and evaluating emergency exercises; providing medical assistance in case of nuclear and radiation accidents; using radio­metric instrumentation for the response to nuclear and radiation emergen­cies; and developing and implementing adequate procedures for prompt notification and mutual assistance.