ACTIONS PLAN #4 – ACTIONS IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS. TRAFFIC ACCIDENT DURING TRANSPORTATION OF THE RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS.

Possible after-effects:

• Radioactive contamination of environment


• Irradiation of the people involved into accident and its witnesses, personnel overcoming consequences of the accident and helping the victims (traffic police, fire-brigades, medical officers etc).

The required actions on ensuring radiation safety and completion of the necessary procedures of radiation control:

• Detection of the source


• Locating (setting the boundaries of radioactive contamination spread)


• Measurement of radiation level and determination of safe area


• Identification of the source (in case the shipping documents are not available, lost or destroyed)


• Determination of the risk level of the source from the point of view its further spreading and influencing environment and human health)


• Informing the organizations that ensure overcoming consequences of radioactive contamination and that are responsible for proper countermeasures


• Supervising the performance of the procedures

Using the capabilities of the POLISMART SYSTEM all these procedures can be completed by the traffic police officer in the following order:

• He is capable to detect, locate and identify the radiation source using the hand-held multipurpose instrument and following the instructions displayed in the LCD of the instrument


• Requesting the DMSS directly he is capable to estimate to what extent the source is harmful and to determine the order of his actions. Depending on the type of the source he can inform the corresponding organizations. All results of measurement are automatically sent to the DMSS, the order of performing the radiation control procedures is recorded and the area coordinates are automatically tied-in. In cases when the traffic accident occurred during transportation of the cargoes with the increased concentration of natural radionuclides and its radiation level does not exceed the allowable limits, the elimination of the after-effects of the traffic accidents can be completed in regular way by the officers of the traffic police


• In case if the user cannot make a decision himself based on the results of measurement and after completion procedures and requesting the DMSS the online communication with the experts must be conducted. The experts determine the further order of actions using the information transmitted to Internet and communicating directly with the user of the instrument


• In case when the traffic accident during transportation of radioactive or nuclear materials may cause hard after-effects and the actions taken by the operators are not sufficient to make prompt decisions the departmental or national CRISIS CENTER must be involved in the process of eliminating the after-effects. Using the DMSS the center may involve various services, to establish connection with the operators of the instruments and experts for joint development and fulfillment of the action program


• During eliminating the after-effects of the accident and isolation of the radiation source all taken actions are followed by the similar actions of the specialists of the corresponding services equipped with the instruments of the POLISMART SYSTEM

This results in that the information of all actions taken by the specialists involved into the process of eliminating the accident is automatically collected in the data base. This information also includes physical movings of the source to the storage and disposal place, state of environment, irradiation levels of the personnel, etc. All processes ad procedures are supervised in the real time mode and the collected information is saved and can be requested at any time when it is necessary.