Support in the management of radiological emergencies: ISIN is the Center of Competence of the National Civil Protection Service

The integration of the list of Civil Protection Competence Centers was published on 12 January in the italian Gazzetta Ufficiale. The National Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection is now added to the long list of bodies and research institutes of national importance that offer services, information, data, processing and technical-scientific contributions in specific fields.

In fact, ISIN, which has been working closely with the Department of Civil Protection for years, will provide technical support in the field of prediction and prevention of nuclear and radiological risk and emergency management. Among the tasks entrusted to the Inspectorate, the prediction of the radiological impact on the national territory following accident events with dispersion of radioactive contaminants into the atmosphere, the analyzes of the accident scenarios on which the emergency plans are drawn up, the participation in the national alert with its own automatic monitoring networks on a national scale for early warning in the event of the presence of anomalous levels of radioactivity in the environment.

Participates, representing the Italian State, in the activities carried out by international organizations and the European Union regarding radiological and nuclear risk. Provides support in planning committees for the preparation of national and local emergency plans.

The Data Processing and Evaluation Centre, CEVaD, operates at the ISIN, which coordinates its activities, to which the law entrusts the task, during an emergency, of providing an estimate of the trend in time and space of the levels of environmental contamination and exposure of the population, for the purposes of identifying and adopting the necessary measures to protect public health, as well as to support the authorities responsible for disseminating information to the population. This is also based on the coordination that ISIN carries out, in this situation, of the National Environmental Radioactivity Surveillance Network, RESORAD.

The Nuclear Emergency Center (CEN) of ISIN is the operational structure of the Inspectorate for responding to a nuclear or radiological emergency. The services and systems that compose it operate to support the activities that the Inspectorate is called upon to carry out in the management of such emergencies.

The link to the Decree: https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/gu/2024/01/12/9/sg/pdf