International assistance during a nuclear or radiological emergency, ISIN participates in the IAEA exercise

The international nuclear emergency exercise called ConvEx -2b (Convention Exercise), organized by the Incident and Emergency Center (IEC) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), ends today. The simulation aims to evaluate the request and provision of international assistance by the states party to the international conventions of prompt notification and assistance, in the event of nuclear and radiological accidents.

The exercise is the first in which Italy takes part after the registration in the RANET (Response and Assistance NETwork) of 27 National Assistance Capacities (NAC), belonging to ENEA (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development) which took place last January, also thanks to the coordination carried out by ISIN.

RANET allows international assistance to be provided to countries in conditions of nuclear or radiological emergency that request it and is now made up of a group of 41 states.

In this exercise, through the RANET system, a request for Assistance from the Maltese competent Authority (Civil Protection Department - CPD) was received following an explosion on a merchant ship in a Maltese port, in which the presence of radioactivity in the environment. ISIN, as the competent National Authority under the aforementioned International Conventions, is carrying out a coordination role of the NACs, acting as an interface between the IEC of the IAEA and ENEA.

The exercise therefore represents a valuable opportunity to test the procedures for providing assistance, which include the request for help from a state through the IAEA, the activation of the ENEA NACs by the ISIN and the signing of the Plan of action for the concrete start of assistance interventions.