IEC Newsletter, No. 46, Fourth Quarter 2013

ConvEx exercises (Convention Exercises) are prepared for Member States and relevant international organizations by the IAEA under the framework of the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency. These exercises are carried out at three levels of complexity with the third level (ConvEx-3) being a full scale exercise prepared every three to five years within the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiological and Nuclear Emergencies (IACRNE), which comprises 17 international intergovernmental organizations. ConvEx-3 (2013), code-named 'Bab Al Maghrib', was hosted by Morocco and designed to allow Member States and international organizations to evaluate their response in a severe radiological emergency triggered by a nuclear security event and to identify emergency preparedness and response (EPR) areas requiring improvements. The exercise was conducted on 20 and 21 November 2013 and lasted approximately 25 hours. Fifty-nine Member States (including Morocco) and ten international organizations (including the IAEA) participated in the exercise. Twenty-four of the participating Member States and six of the international organizations participated in the exercise at the highest level possible (Level B) to actively test their EPR arrangements and capabilities for responding to such an event, and to test the sharing and exchange of information internationally. During the exercise, several Member States actively offered their national assistance capabilities to the exercise Accident State (Morocco). It was the first time in the history of ConvEx-3 exercises that country specific injects were prepared in a way that required specific Member State responses. The active participation of relevant international organizations (including INTERPOL and EUROPOL), information sharing, response coordination and sharing public updates among press officers of these organizations contributed to a harmonized international response and consistent information to the public. The active role played by the Agency's Director General, senior Agency staff and the Moroccan management in the exercise helped to stress the importance of conducted exercises. Chief evaluators from Member States and international organizations, including the IAEA, are currently preparing evaluation reports. Based on these reports, the Lead Exercise Evaluator (IAEA) will prepare a final Exercise Report, which will be discussed at the ConvEx-3 (2013) evaluation meeting taking place in Vienna on 11-12 February 2014. The initial assessment and feedback underscore that this exercise was well prepared and achieved its objectives