EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

1. Each Contracting Party shall ensure that before and during operation of a spent fuel or radioactive waste management facility there are appropriate on-site and, if necessary, off-site emergency plans. Such emergency plans should be tested at an appropriate frequency.

2. Each Contracting Party shall take the appropriate steps for the preparation and testing of emergency plans for its territory insofar as it is likely to be affected in the event of a radiological emergency at a spent fuel or radioactive waste management facility in the vicinity of its territory.

F.25 EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

F.25.1 General

The emergency plans for the NPPs and Studsvik include the installations for spent fuel and radioactive waste management at these facilities. The CLAB and SFR facilities are included in the emergency plans for the NPPs OKG and Forsmark respectively. The fuel fabrication facility Westinghouse Atom AB also has an emergency plan.

F.25.2 Regulatory requirements

In the Government bill 1980/81:90, issued after the TMI-accident (Three Mile Island accident), the emer- gency preparedness issues received considerable attention. It was proposed by the Government, and decided by Parliament, that the emergency planning must consider all types of accidents, from those with very small environmental consequences to the most serious accidents. Further, systematic training of decision-makers must be undertaken as well as the organization of personnel on duty and a system for verified telecommu- nication between the responsible organizations. Finally it was required that technical support centres to the control rooms of the nuclear power plants should be established.

SSI’s role is to maintain and further develop the national radiation protection preparedness. The prepa- redness shall be assessed in national and international exercises, and shall be co-ordinated in accordance with international treaties. Moreover, SSI shall co-ordinate the national resources for radiation measurements, and shall maintain responsibilty for the operation of air filter stations. All these obligations are stated in the Rescue Services Act (1986:1102), the Rescue Services Ordinance (1986:1107) and in the Ordinance with instructions for SSI (1988:295).

The development and practice of an on-site emergency preparedness plan is a licensing condition. In SKI’s general safety regulations (SKIFS 1998:1) this requirement is specified. The regulations are applicable to spent fuel and radioactive waste management facilities as well as to nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel production facilities. It is required of the licensees, that in case of incidents which could lead to a radiological accident, that there are plans for:

- alerting the emergency preparedness personnel without delay, - bringing the plant to a safe and stable state,

- informing about the technical situation at the plant.

The plan shall be kept up to date and tested in regular exercises. It is further required that there are specially assigned and trained personnel, suitable emergency operating centres, technical systems, tools and protective equipment to the extent needed to carry out the tasks mentioned. Further details about planning conditions are given in the general recommendations to the regulations.

In the Rescue Services Act and Ordinance it is stated that a county is responsible for the protection of and information to the citizens living there in the event of a nuclear accident of any kind. The Swedish Rescue Services Agency has also issued requirements regarding alarming and informing the public.

Sweden has signed the Convention of Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency and the Convention of Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident. Sweden has in addition made several bilateral agreements concerning information in the event of an accident. These conventions and bilateral agreements apply to all nuclear facilities, including facilities for the management of spent nuclear fuel or radioactive waste.

The licensees are required to have a certain number of exercises every year. Every forth year a NPP has a comprehensive national exercise together with the county and central authorities, to check the emergency plans and the capability of the on-site and off-site organisations. These exercises are planned by the respec- tive county administration and are evaluated by the Rescue Services Agency. Some 15 to 30 organisations usually participate in these exercises. SSI and SKI participate in the planning, the exercises, as well as in the evaluation process.

F.25.3 National monitoring and measuring

A network of permanent radiation monitoring stations (SSI gamma stations) has been in operation since the end of the 1950’s. After the Chernobyl accident, the number of monitoring stations was increased from 25 to 37, and data transmission to SSI via modems and telephone lines was introduced. The stations are designed to initiate an alarm in the event of elevated radiation levels. All components of the system are now out of date and the entire monitoring system must be evaluated. The measurement chambers have become increasingly unreliable and must be either updated or replaced. The electronics for data storage and transmission are more than 10 years old and use a communication protocol that is no longer supported by the telephone system. During 2001, operating disturbances occurred regularly at 6-7 stations. An investigation to determine how the next generation of radiation monitoring stations should be configured has been initiated.

Coordinated national preparedness for measurements of ionizing radiation has been set up by agreements with the radiation physics departments at six universities, and also with FOI (Swedish Defence Research Agency) in Umeå and Studsvik Nuclear AB. The nuclear power plants participate in the national prepared- ness on a voluntary basis. Malå Geoscience AB keeps an emergency supply of monitoring instruments. SGU (Geological Survey of Sweden) has maintained its capacity for airborne spectrometry, with measuring equipment partially funded by SSI. SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) in Alnarp has been

contracted to carry out an exercise programme for radiation measurements in agriculture, using voluntary defence organizations and the contract laboratories. FOI has been contracted to keep fi ve air fi lter stations in operation, including analysis of the air fi lter samples. No activity levels above the reporting limit have been detected during 2001. SSI has made an agreement with SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) for continual dispersion forecasts and the handling of international alarms (National Warning Point). The dispersion forecasts for hypothetical emissions are calculated every six hours for all Swedish nuclear power plants and for a number of nuclear power plants in neighbouring countries. The forecasts are continuously available for SSI at SMHI. SSI sends them out if an accident should occur.

The location of the air-sampling and monitoring stations is shown in Figure F4.

F.25.4 Regulatory control

SSI and SKI inspect the on-site emergency preparedness both separately and together. Areas that have been assessed are documentation and implementation of plans and regulations. SSI has also inspected the capabilities of the licensees to ensure the radiation protection of their staff in accidents with high radiation levels, and procedures for alarming and to provide continued information about technical and radiation protection status.

In addition to inspections of the emergency planning, SKI and SSI occasionally inspect the plant actions during emergency exercises. For this purpose a special inspection model has been developed in order to assess the most important tasks for safety.

The off-site emergency planning is assessed by the Swedish Rescue Services Agency in cooperation with other relevant authorities.

F.25.5 Conclusion