Decision support for off-site NPP emergency management in Russia

Full text: In Russian Federation in the framework of the agreement between Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) and Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet), effort are being made to set up a distributed system for collection, processing and presentation of data on the radiation situation around nuclear power plants (NPP) and other nuclear facilities (NF), both at normal operation and in emergency. The information sources in the system are automated monitoring system of the radiation situation at NPP and NF (Minatom) and territorial system of radiation monitoring (Roshydromet). The radiological monitoring system around NPP consists of two parts. First, the monitoring system around NPP in the sanitary zone (usually 10 km). This system is managed by the NPP itself. The system normally includes 10-20 devices for automatic measurement of GDR. These devises are connected by radio or telephone channels with a local emergency centre which is located on the site of NPP. By a prescribed order the local emergency centre collects and processes information from GDR measurement devices. The local emergency centre is connected by a dedicated line with the emergency centre of 'Rosenergoatom'. By this channel the local emergency centre sends measurements to the emergency centre of 'Rosenergoatom'. Besides, the radiological monitoring around NPP is also carried out by Roshydromet and its territorial departments outside the sanitary zone. Some fixed stations and monitoring posts of Roshydromet are located within the monitoring zone. Altogether, there are 260 Roshydromet stations and monitoring points within 100 km zones of NFs in which GDR are measured and aerosol samples of surface air and atmospheric depositions are collected. Roshydromet has established a specialized federal centre for providing real-time and prognostic information about the radiological situation in the territory of Russia (Federal Environmental Emergency Response Centre - FEERC). The centre has been based in SPA 'Typhoon' (Obninsk). The primary responsibility of FEERC is to provide information support in dealing with consequences of a nuclear accident. In preparation and presentation of data on the radiation situation in Russian Federation in case of a nuclear emergency, FEERC of Roshydromet collaborates with Emergency Centre of Ministry of Atomic Energy of Russia and Emergency Centre of 'Rosenergoatom' concern of Russia (Moscow) which provides interaction with NPPs, and Centre of Emergency Management of Ministry of Emergency (Moscow) in case of an environmental emergency. The above organizations act as National Centre of Russia an radiation monitoring and Information support to decision-making in case of a nuclear emergency. The system of collecting and processing real-time contamination data is being developed as a distributed system. The basic software for data processing used in the system is the RECASS. The work performed has provided that the data exchange between radiation monitoring systems of different agencies can be achieved within a common information environment. The system of data collection and exchange should be built as a distributed system of databases which will permit reducing the volumes of data of routine measurements (no-accident case) to be transmitted between different levels (centres) of the system in real time. Using the 'clientserver' technology in building the system, one can receive data, if necessary, from any database within the distributed system. Organization of databases by common rules lays the basis for their use as an information basis for a decision-making support system of RECASS type at any level of the distributed system. fig.1 (author)