Background
WINS held a three-day, three-hour-per-day online event that focused on how to design, implement and sustain measures for radioactive source security during extraordinary events, including natural catastrophes and human induced events, such as wars and social unrest.
Every country in the world has radioactive sources within its territory. The security of these sources is important to avoid any deviation of material and malicious use. There are many documents and guides that analyse how to implement and sustain security measures for radioactive sources during normal, “business as usual” situations and cases when control is lost due to accidental or malicious reasons. However, this workshop focused on how to implement, strengthen, and then sustain radioactive source security during extraordinary events that are considered unlikely or difficult to anticipate. We argue that the ability to implement security measures during extraordinary times implies different challenges and requires a special set of coordination and implementation skills and procedures.
Objectives
This workshop had the following objectives:
- Define what extraordinary events are and discuss how to identify and anticipate them
- Describe the particular security challenges associated with extraordinary events and the differences from daily, “normal” situations
- Review the special skills, resources and stakeholders needed to implement radioactive source security during extraordinary events
- Examine how to sustain radioactive source security during and after extraordinary events
- Assess our level of readiness to mitigate extraordinary situations
- Share lessons learned and best practices on preparedness and preparation to deal with extraordinary events
Audience
The main target audience of this workshop were:
- End-users
- Regulators
- Law enforcement agencies
- Emergency and response organisations
- Government officials
- Academia
- International organisations
Participants from developing countries, female experts and other diversities were especially encouraged to register for this online workshop.
Process
This workshop had various presentations from subject matter experts and about national experiences dealing with natural and human induced extraordinary events and the challenges associated with them.
It also presented case studies and group discussions on how to react and adapt to extraordinary events as well as how to scale, evolve and transform radioactive source security measures designed for expected situations to extraordinary events.
The workshop incorporated lessons learned from industry representatives who faced operational challenges during extraordinary events. It explored how industry and State resources need to coordinate their actions during such situations. It finally reviewed the role of international organisations supporting countries addressing this challenge.
Experts from other industries and the IAEA Incident and Emergency Centre were invited to share their experiences.
The webinar was conducted in English, with no interpretation.
Important Dates
- Deadline to apply to the workshop: 7 October 2022
- Workshop delivery: 18-20 October 2022, 14:00 – 17:00 CEST
- Registration: After registering on WINS website, each participant received a link to the Zoom meeting.
