| Chair(s): | Secretary: |
Edward LAZO (edward.lazo@oecd-nea.org) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Member(s): | All NEA member countries* | ||
| Russia (Suspended*) | |||
| *Russian Federation suspended pursuant to a decision of the OECD Council. | |||
| Full participant(s): |
European Commission Under the NEA Statute | ||
| Observer(s)(International Organisation): |
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) By agreement | ||
| Date of creation: | 29 March 2019 | ||
| End of mandate: | 29 March 2021 |
Mandate (Document reference):
Mandate (Document extract):
Extract of document NEA/CRPPH/INEX(2018)3/PROV
Mandate:
The Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) established the Expert Group on comparison and understanding of Dose Prognosis (EGDP), in order to allow member countries to collaboratively address the issue of improving cross-border co-ordination through a common understanding of the factors that influence dose projection codes and result in different outputs.
This expert group supports the mandate of the Committee for Radiological Protection and Public Health (CRPPH), which states: “the Committee shall … promote international collaboration on specific radiological protection and radiation-related public health topics of interest to the NEA member countries in the framework of the NEA Strategic Plan” NEA/NE(2017)13, Appendix I]. The EGDP also supports the WPNEM mission “to improve nuclear emergency management systems within NEA member countries, and to share its knowledge and experience widely” and, in particular, to “identify and investigate as appropriate further advancements in all aspects of emergency preparedness and response for nuclear/radiological emergencies (including accidents and consequence management of malicious acts) …” NEA/CRPPH/INEX(2016)4/REV1
Objectives
The main objective of the EGDP is to collaboratively address the issue of improving cross-border co-ordination through a common understanding of the outputs of dose projection codes, which influence the decisions on protective actions.
Scope
The scope of the EGDP will be limited to the dose prognosis phase, as a basis for the recommendations of early protective measures (sheltering, Iodine Thyroid Blocking (ITB, evacuation). It will not include the phase where measurements of fallout are used as inputs to the dose projection codes.
This scope will cover the origin of uncertainties and how these are communicated to the different stakeholders (decision-makers, implementors and the public).
Methods of Working
The EGDP membership shall be composed of experts in emergency preparedness and response. Members may bring experts from their organisations to enrich the exchanges between the regulatory bodies.
Periodically, the EGDP will report to the CRPPH and assist the Committee with its work.
The working methodology of the EGDP will be based on an exercise, where member countries use the same agreed-upon source term for a given accident site. Each member country will run their own dose prognosis code and the results are to be compared. The EGDP will analyse and investigate the reasons for differences and uncertainty ranges.
The first step will be the evaluation of the uncertainties and variabilities related to:
Source terms
Meteorological forecasts
Input configuration
In a second step, the expert group will endeavour to:
Conduct an exercise using different dose prognosis codes with the same source term as input. The EGDP will initially use the same weather data (historical data for a chosen date). The EGDP may subsequently consider using the actual real-time weather data that a country would use in a real accident situation.
Compare dose prognosis outputs and investigate reasons for differences
Interactions
The EGDP will interact as appropriate with other NEA standing technical committees and international organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission in order to apply the right expertise to the right issues. The WPNEM will seek good co-operation and co-ordination with other international organisations, and ensure greater efficiency by identifying areas of synergetic effort, clarifying roles, responsibilities and relevant activities to avoid duplicating efforts and optimise resources. In particular, the EGDP will build on the work and outcomes of the FASTRUN project and the European Union Horizon 2020 Fast Nuclear Emergency Tools (FASTNET) project. Additionally, the Heads of European Radiological Protection Competent Authorities (HERCA) and the European Platform on Preparedness for Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Response and Recovery (NERIS) are currently interested in similar activities. Meteorology experts will be invited to the EGDP to share their basis for analysis, uncertainties of results and how they communicate them. The EGDP will endeavour to keep these interested parties mutually informed and discuss possible collaboration.
Deliverables
Report summarising the methodology, development and main outcomes of an exercise, where member countries share their understanding of the outputs of dose projection codes that influence the decisions on protective actions. This report should:
provide an understanding of why the results are or may be different.
Focus on how the identified differences can be understood and taken into account by neighbouring countries.
Explore the possibility to define what could be considered to be “good general agreement” amongst the codes outputs.
