RANET Response and Assistance Network

PROVISIONAL AGENDA

4th Regular RANET Meeting

Boardroom A IAEA Headquarters, Vienna

08:30 on 10 June 2016

1. Opening and welcome

2. Current status of RANET registrations

3. Workshops and Exercises

4. International assistance features on USIE

5. Revision of EPR-RANET 2013

6. Any other business

7. Conclusions and closing

Version: 1 Date: 2016-06-10

3. CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS

RANET is a network of State Parties to the Assistance Convention that are capable and willing to provide, upon request, specialized assistance by appropriately trained, equipped and qualified personnel with the ability to respond in a timely and effective manner to nuclear or radiological incidents and emergencies.

If a State needs assistance in the event of a nuclear or radiological incident or emergency, whether or not such an event originates on its territory or is under its jurisdiction or control, it may request assistance from or through the IAEA.

The Permanent Mission, or the Competent Authority, is the Government representative that is expected to request assistance. To facilitate the effective provision of assistance, it is expected that a State will request assistance through one of the following channels, listed by preference:

(1) Submitting the Request For Assistance (RFA) form on USIE; (2) Fax to the IEC; or (3) Telephone to the IEC.

The request for assistance needs to include the scope and type of assistance required as follows:

(a) Information about the incident or emergency: nature of the event, location, time of its occurrence (UTC and local time), name and full address of organization in charge of response actions, and name and contact details of person assigned to liaise with the IEC.

(b) Type(s) of emergency assistance required: radiation survey, environmental sampling and analysis, source search and recovery, assessment and advice, decontamination, medical support, dose assessment, and other(s), need to be specified.

3.1. Operations

Upon receipt of an official assistance request, the IAEA through its IEC becomes the focal point for the facilitation and coordination of international assistance. The IEC assesses the request and provides initial advice to the requesting State.

The IEC may deploy an Assessment Mission (e.g. fact-finding mission) as an initial mission deployed to collect and assess information; to perform an initial evaluation of the situation; to provide immediate advice as needed; and to recommend whether activation of a RANET Assistance Mission is necessary.

The RANET Assistance Mission response will be tailored to the specific situation e.g. it may include deployment of assets as well as provision of advice or assistance from an external base.

If the activation of NAC resources is recommended, the IEC will alert the appropriate National Warning Point(s) and request coordination with relevant Competent Authorities/NAC

coordinator(s)1. The Competent Authorities/NAC coordinator(s) then coordinate with their NAC to assess if they are able to offer the requested assistance. The Competent Authorities will then inform the IEC regarding the availability of their resources for assistance, and if available, an Offer of Assistance (OFA) will be submitted to the IEC via USIE, email or fax. If required, the NAC resources will be placed on standby. This concept is outlined in Figure 1.

The completed OFA needs to include the identification of assistance offered, the relevant expertise and resources, the availability of the offered assistance and any requirements (e.g. logistical) and/or terms (e.g. financial) under which the assistance is offered. The level of detail should be sufficient to allow the Requesting State and/or the IEC to determine which offer(s) best meet the requirements of the requested assistance. Preparedness activities related to pre-preparation of the content for submitting Offers of Assistance are described in Section 4 and example completed OFA’s are presented in Appendix [to be promulgated].

The IEC may, considering confidentiality requests of the State(s) and the nature of the event, publish RFA(s) and OFA(s) on USIE to enable prompt sharing of information between relevant counterparts.

The IEC will then liaise between the Requesting State and Offering States, as necessary, to determine which assistance is accepted and to determine the exact nature of an Assistance Mission.

In circumstances where the IAEA Secretariat needs to request the assistance of NAC resources in support of its own operations, the IEC will follow the same process of alerting the appropriate National Warning Point(s) and will request coordination with relevant Competent Authorities/NAC coordinator.

1 A NAC Coordinator as appointed by the State or international organization is the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre’s (IEC) single

official RANET contact point.

IAEA

IEC

Relevant

international

organizations

Assessment

Mission

National Warning

Point

National Assistance

Capabilities - NAC

Requesting

State

1

Request

assistance

1a

Deploy if

needed

1b

Assess situation

and needs

2

Alert of needs

3

Notify

4

Coordinate

5

Competent

Authority

4

Coordinate

Requested

Member States

Agreed NAC utilized or

deployed according to accepted

Assistance Action Plan

Figure 1: Outline of the RANET concept. State sends request for assistance to the IEC (1). The IEC may directly request assets or deploy an Assessment Mission (1a) to assess situation and needs (1b). If activation of RANET assets is deemed necessary the IEC alerts National Warning Point(s) (2), which notify Competent Authorities (3). Competent Authorities/NAC Coordinator(s) then coordinate provision of assistance with the IEC (4). Available assistance capabilities are utilized or deployed according to the accepted Assistance Action Plan (5).

3.2. Assistance Mission

An Assistance Mission is performed by a group of qualified experts and can be a FAT, an EBS or a JAT comprising of a combination of FAT and/or EBS to provide advice, assessment, medical support, monitoring or other specialized assistance following nuclear or radiological incidents or emergencies.

An Assessment Mission, when previously deployed, is incorporated into the Assistance Mission.

Depending on the objectives and scope of the Assistance Mission, the exact nature and title of the mission will be specified in the Assistance Action Plan (AAP) developed and agreed upon for that mission.

Team Leaders (Assistance Mission Leader, FAT Leader(s) and/or EBS Leader(s)) will be identified and agreed upon by all parties to the AAP. The Team Leader(s) will be responsible for all assistance activities and ensures coordination with the requesting State, Assisting State, the IEC and any External Based Support2.

Where an Assistance Mission is implemented as a JAT, the JAT Command, composed of all FAT Leaders including a Secretariat representative, manages all on-scene JAT assistance and ensures coordination with the requesting and assisting State(s), the IEC and the External Based Support(s).

Identified Team Leader(s) must have the necessary technical and managerial experience to support and assist the requesting State. The Team Leader(s) also must have the expertise to oversee the operation and the ability to communicate within the given command structure. He/she has to:

Lead and manage the Assistance Mission, FAT or EBS and ensure that all technical tasks are performed according to the AAP;

Ensure safety of the team members;

Provide support needed to achieve the mission’s objectives; and

Liaise with and regularly contact respective Team Leader(s), IEC and identified State representatives.

3.3. Assistance Action Plan

An Assistance Action Plan (AAP) for the requested assistance will be developed by the IEC in coordination with the requesting State, State(s) providing assistance and relevant international organization(s), as appropriate. This plan will specify the responses needed and whether the assistance will be deployed and/or provided from an external base. The AAP includes all technical, financial, diplomatic, organizational and logistical aspects of the assistance to be provided.

When developing the AAP, the composition of the Assistance Mission may consider specialized techniques, existing agreements and arrangements/collaboration between the States.

The AAP will also include the composition of the team(s) performing the mission including the Assistance Mission leader, EBS Leader and FAT Team Leaders. States offering assistance need to be prepared to promptly provide the detailed information regarding the composition of any experts/teams participating in the Assistance Mission. This information will be compiled with the information included in their OFA(s) to complete the AAP. Note: Passport details/copies of team members will be required to be sent to the IEC shortly after an offer of assistance is accepted, hence States need to be prepared to send this information in a timely manner.

The IEC will nominate an Assistance Mission Leader for consideration, taking into account the mission objectives, composition of the team(s) and based on proposals made by the Assisting Parties. The Assistance Mission Leader will be agreed on, before deployment, by all parties by signing the AAP.

Upon acceptance of the AAP by the requesting State, the IEC will notify the assisting States’ CAs/NAC coordinators and request activation of NAC resources. Any changes to the AAP must be coordinated with all Parties before they are implemented.

2 See Appendix G for details.

Details of the AAP are described in Section 5 and an example of an AAP is presented in the Appendix B.

3.8 Financial arrangements

The financial principles of the response operations to a nuclear accident or radiological emergency must be in accordance with Article 7 of the Assistance Convention, and it is expected that these principles will also be applied in the response to nuclear or radiological incidents.

States offering assistance are encouraged to consider any financial requirements in advance and be prepared to specify them in an OFA, as appropriate taking into account the considerations in Article 7 of the Assistance Convention.

Some financial support for RANET assistance activities may be provided through the IAEA’s regular budget or from other IAEA resources. The IAEA may cover the expenses for the initial mobilization and deployment of the Assessment and/or Assistance Mission. If the IAEA cannot cover these initial expenses (for reasons of timing, for example) the States may cover the expenses, which may be reimbursed at a later stage.

States that are members of RANET are responsible for maintaining the NAC registered under RANET. States are also encouraged to maintain insurance coverage, or otherwise assume financial liability, for responders and equipment that they deploy.

The IAEA assumes no liability for personnel or equipment of States providing assistance.

4. NATIONAL ASSISTANCE

CAPABILITIES

Prepared information for offering assistance

States that have registered their NAC in RANET are expected to know and indicate in their OFAs, within certain operational constraints, what would normally constitute the composition, requirements and terms of their FAT or EBS, as applicable for each NAC, that would provide assistance for different types of scenarios. Such information includes, but is not limited to, the following (as applicable):

Composition of team o Numbers of experts o Roles/qualifications of experts

Resources (for use by NAC) o Details of FAT technical capabilities, including

Type(s) of equipment and manufacturer

Quantity of each

Support equipment

GPS

Computers/tablets

Software

GIS mapping solutions

Personal protective equipment

Personal dosimetry

Protective clothing

Other equipment

Communication equipment (telephone, internet, video conferencing, fax etc)

Power supplies/generators

Medical supplies o Details of facilities and/or equipment offered by EBS

Type(s) of equipment and manufacturer

Quantity of each

Number of samples that can be received

Throughput of samples (i.e. samples analysed/counted per day)

Turnaround time from receipt of sample to reporting

Description of Medical facilities

Description of medical treatment capabilities o Assistance products

Short description of content and format of products generated by FAT/EBS

Requirements of FAT/EBS o Working area o Storage requirements, cooling o Power requirements o Communications (telephone, internet, fax etc)

o Technical support items (e.g. liquid nitrogen) o Vehicles or aerial platforms o Typical information (e.g. plant conditions, monitoring data, meteorological data)

required to perform EBS analysis and advise tasks o Form, size/volume of samples/packaging

Terms under which assistance is offered (e.g. financial) This information should be included in the RANET Registration and should be updated as necessary. This would ensure that the availability of this information, in advance, is intended so that it may be used as the basis for preparing a timely and suitable offer of assistance. Upon notification of an event or upon receipt of a request for assistance, the prepared information may be reviewed and amended taking into account the nature of the event, the location, the requested assistance and the availability of the NAC to provide the requested assistance. The reviewed information may then be included in an official OFA that is forwarded to the IEC. The information provided will be used by the IEC to assist in its continual review of RANET capabilities (see Section 4.6) and also can help the IEC direct assistance requests to suitable capabilities based on the nature of the event and the assistance requested.

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Assistance Features on USIE

In December 2014 the IAEA updated the features of USIE to provide additional support for the

international assistance process. The following is a short description to help guide counterparts

through these features.

Request or Offer Assistance

Forms are available to Request for Assistance (RFA) and to Offer Assistance (OFA). These are

accessible to USIE users with the appropriate affiliation and USIE user rights. The forms are easily

accessible from the USIE home page, as highlighted in Red below. Links are also available through

the RANET pages and the various reporting and submissions pages.

Accessing the Assistance part of an event

Once a Request for Assistance or Offer of Assistance form been published within a USIE event, there

is an Assistance section automatically created within the event. This is accessed through the

Assistance link on the right hand side of the screen within the event. See in red below.

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Navigating and utilising the Assistance pages

Within the Assistance area of an Event, there are five tabs (see area in red below) that can be

viewed:

Requests: Lists individual Requests for Assistance for that event. Can be filtered by

Requesting State.

Individual Offers: Lists individual Offers of Assistance for that event. Can be filtered by the

Offering State/international organization.

All NAC Offered: Presents a table listing all National Assistance Capabilities (NAC) offered.

Requested NAC Availability: Presents a table showing all the NAC requested in left most

column and the columns to the right showing the NAC offered by the various States and

international organisations (IO)

Documents: Provides a list of any documents posted within the event that are associated

with Assistance. Note: Any attachments to requests or offers are automatically associated

with Assistance.

To navigate back to the event, click on Back to Event Overview as shown in green below.

Additional descriptions of the features within some of the different tabs are provided below.

Individual Offers tab

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All NAC Offered

The All NAC offered page lists the NAC offered by States and/or IOs. The leftmost column lists all the

NAC offered, and the scrollable columns to the right allow the user to see the NAC offered by each

State/IO. The listings on this page ensure all Offers of Assistance are able to be summarized even if a

Request for Assistance has not yet been received.

In cases where more than one offer is received from a State or IO, these are accumulated in the

same column.

To view the actual offer(s) from the State or IO, click on the name at the top of the column and it will

navigate to the Individual Offers tab, pre-filtered to show the offer(s) from that State/IO.

Requested NAC Availability tab

This tab allows users to see the compiled list of all NAC requested during an event, on the left hand

column. The columns to the right highlight the NAC offered by States/IOs related to the requested

NAC.

The list of requested NAC in the left column is automatically compiled from all Request(s) for

Assistance, regardless of whether different States have requested assistance. The list may be filtered

by Requesting State so that those only the requests from a particular State are displayed.

As with the All NAC Offered tab, clicking the name of the State/IO navigates to the Individual Offers

tab, pre-filtered to show the offer(s) from that State/IO

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