RESPONSE TO A DETECTION INCIDENT

摘要

Experience in Member States has shown that frequent radiat radiation monitoring ation borders or within a country results in a si significant number of radiation alarms, wheregnificant most of them are of an innocent nature, i.e. caused by naturally occurring radioactivematerial, by pharmaceutical radionuclides in persons who have had medical treatmentor by legal radioactive shipments. The rapi rapid resolution of d innocent alarms, with anacceptably low level of vulnerab vulnerability to overlooking a threat ility isotope, is one of the mostimportant tasks in radiation monitoring. In th this process, the impact on the free flow ofis goods and passengers must be minimized. This problem area is also the driving force forR&D in the field of radiologic radiological security. Since frontline officers (FLOs), i.e. customs,al police, border guards and secu security, are not experts in radiat rity, radiation detection, practice inion Member States has shown that they can be succ successful only if reliable expert support isessful available. If not, the FLOs may become in insecure and may not be able to carry outsecure radiation monitoring effectivel effectively. How this support is set up y. by different Member Statesdiffers. There are several areas where exper expert support is needed: initial detection phase,t emergency response if required, nuclear forens forensics and attribution, not to forget threatics assessment, equipment purchasing, installation, maintenance and training. In the paper,the mobile expert support team (MEST) concep concept is discussed, as introduced in Membert States, supported by the IAEA to provide support in the initial detection phase andoften also in other areas discussed. It consists of various components, such as equipmentand techniques used by analytic analytical experts and radiological assessors, procedures and aal training programme, emphasizi emphasizing the operative interaction ng between FLOs and the MEST.