International exchange of emergency phase information and assessments: an aid to inter/national decision makers

Full text: Nuclear accidents/incidents cause significant fear in citizens perceived to be (potentially) impacted. Such events challenge national governments and international agencies to quickly and confidently provide assurance and protection advice. Based on the experience of several radiological accidents, e.g., Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Algeciras, etc., it is evident that large areas, frequently transboundary, and numbers of citizens have the potential to be impacted. Additionally, as a consequence of current 'globalization', i.e. governmental, business, education and leisure travel, most nations now daily host numerous international visitors whose national government embassies have a responsibility to advise and project them from hazards. This mixture of large area, transboundary and international mobility presents a significant challenge to the decision maker community in order to deliver the best consistent advice to all those potentially impacted by a nuclear accident (and assure those not impacted). Post-Chernobyl there has been definitive progress and agreement in the determination of dose protection thresholds. In the same time period there has been a proliferation of dispersion models and assessment systems (from the local to the international scale) to support decision makers at all levels of government. Unfortunately, due to the varying parameters of scale, resolution, input data, and physics assumptions, the consequent assessment results can vary substantially enough [Atmes] to potentially cause confusion and even contradiction when presented to decision makers. Such a circumstance potentially leads to wrong decisions, undercuts confidence and negates all the work and benefits of good assessment calculations. From 1996 to 1999 Japan (JAERI) and the USA (LLNL) investigated, developed and tested an initial capability to share basic event information (start time, source/rates, local meteorology, local measurements, etc.) and calculated assessment plots via Internet web sites and interactively dialogue via web-based two-way televideo conferencing technology [LLNL/JAERI report]. While, in principle, the results were functional, the linkups proved to be rudimentary and somewhat unstable for combined video, voice and whiteboard interaction. JAERI (WSPEEDI) and LLNL (NARAC) did successfully exploit this project during two separate radiological accidents in Tokai, Japan. In 1999 the EU/RODOS project expressed an interest to join in this effort. In 2002 the USA renewed interest in this project and subsequently Russia/FEERC joined. Since 1999 there has been substantial improvement in Internet bandwidth, efficient and versatile data exchange protocols (e.g., XML) and televideo conferencing technology. Implementation of data exchange protocols (user ID and password protected) at those four major centers/projects in combination with a multi-party televideo conferencing capability provides the mechanism for the exchange of key information in near realtime, and examination and comparison of calculated assessments in a quasi-peer review mode. This capability provides the opportunity to detect missed input data as well as deficiencies in meteorology, resolution, topography, etc., thus leading to refinement, consensus and 'harmonization' in real time prior to the release of assessments to decision makers. Such a system should be a benefit to all the inter/national agencies involved in advising and protecting impacted citizens by reducing some of the information challenges they (the decision makers) face and, hopefully, resulting in consistent and presumably the best advice. We expect that with successful demonstration and experience with this system, in the future it could provide a tool to non-nuclear countries and international agencies such as the IAEA and WHO. (author)