Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Management and Rehabilitation Strategies: Towards a EU approach for decision support tools

Abstract

The 5-year multi-national project EURANOS (European Approach to Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Management and Rehabilitation Strategies), funded by the European Commission and 23 European Member States, started in April 2004. Integrating 17 national emergency management organisations with 33 research institutes, it brings together best practices, knowledge and technology to enhance the preparedness for Europe's response to any radiation emergency and long term contamination. Key objectives of the project are to collate information on the likely effectiveness and consequences of a wide range of countermeasures, to provide guidance to emergency management organisations and decision makers on the establishment of an appropriate response strategy and to further enhance advanced decision support systems (DSS), in particular, RODOS (Real-time On-line Decisions Support) decision support system), through feedback from their operational use. Further, the project aims to create regional initiatives leading to information exchange based on state-of-the-art information technologies, to develop guidance which assists Member States in developing a framework for the sustainable rehabilitation of living conditions in contaminated areas and to maintain and enhance knowledge and competence through emergency exercises, training and education, thus fostering best practice in emergency response. The project is divided into three major research activities and a set of demonstration projects which are split in two phases lasting over two and three years, respectively. The research activities address specific issues previously identified by the users or by previous research in the area. They are focused on emergency actions and countermeasures, the enhancement of decision support systems for operational application and the development of strategies for the sustainable rehabilitation of contaminated territories. The demonstration activities exercise the developed methods and tools in the actual operational environment. In Phase 1 they focused on methods and IT tools developed under previous EC Framework Programmes. In parallel, the research activities that were already requested by end-users have been started. The results of these research activities were subject to demonstrations within Phase 2. Throughout the work programme, training activities are planned for ensuring wide communication of the project results. Close to the end of the EURANOS project we can state, that most of the key objectives of the project have been achieved. In particular the close involvement of stakeholders and end-users at all stages of the development of a product or research activity was the key for the success of the project. In terms of scientific and technological results, decision support systems were considerably improved, comprehensive guidance on managing of contaminated agricultural and urban environments was developed and finally a governance framework for the sustainable rehabilitation of long-term contaminated areas developed and applied.