New ISO standard to prepare for emergencies at nuclear facilities
Date : 23 November 2011
If a nuclear criticality accident occurs at nuclear facilities, it is not only essential to respond as quickly as possible but more importantly, to have prepared such emergency response. The new ISO standard, ISO 11320:2011, Nuclear criticality safety – Emergency preparedness and response, provides criteria for the establishment and implementation of actions that will effectively mitigate the consequences of a nuclear criticality accident that could impact human health and safety, quality of life, property and the environment.
Safety programmes are primarily directed at avoiding nuclear criticality accidents. However, the possibility of such accidents exists and the consequences can be life-threatening. For facilities that are judged to have a credible criticality accident risk, this necessitates advance planning, practice in planned emergency responses, and verification of readiness. Two distinct phases are identified:
The emergency preparedness phase, that needs to be enforced continuously
The emergency response phase that needs only to be activated when it is indicated that a criticality accident could be developing, could be occurring or could have occurred.
As underlined by Neal Harris, ISO11320:2011 Project Leader, and Calvin Hopper, Working Group Convener, "At nuclear facilities, safety and anticipation are priorities. The new ISO standard, ISO11320:2011, provides criteria for emergency preparedness and response to minimize consequences due to a nuclear criticality accident."
ISO11320:2011 applies to a site with one or more facilities which might contain significant quantities and concentrations of fissile material. The extent to which this standard needs to be applied depends on the overall criticality risk presented by the facilities at the site.
