Improvement, extension and integration of operational Decision Support Systems for nuclear emergency management (DSSNET)

Abstract

Abstract The DSSNET network was established in October 2000 with the overall objective to create an effective and accepted framework for better communication and understanding between the community of institutions involved in operational off-site emergency management and the many and diverse Research and Technological Development (RTD) institutes further developing methods and tools in this area, in particular decision support systems (DSS), for making well informed and consistent judgements with respect to practical improvements of emergency response in Europe. 37 institutions from 21 countries of East and West Europe have been members of the network with about half of them responsible for operational emergency management. To stimulate the communication and feedback between the operational and the RTD community, problem-oriented emergency exercises were performed, which covered the various time phases of an accident and which extended from the near range to farther distances with frontier crossing transport of radionuclides. This paper concentrates on the five emergency exercises conducted in the frame of the project.