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TM-41002

WP 03 Rev. 3

TM-41002

Prepare an updated draft of safety guide "Planning and Preparing for Emergency Response to Transport Accidents Involving Radioactive Material" (TS-G-1.2)

IAEA Headquarters, Vienna

May-July 2011

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TM-41002

WP 03 Rev. 3

Guidance for the Emergency Response by Coastal States to Accidents on Vessels Carrying Radioactive Materials

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Foreword

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Contents

1.Introduction

1.1.Background

1.2.Objectives

1.3.Scope

1.4.Structure

2.Transport of radioactive materials by sea

2.1.Types of marine Events considered

2.1.1.Collision

2.1.2.Contact

2.1.3.Foundering

2.1.4.Foundering scenarios represent about 4% of all identified accidents. . Hull damage

2.1.5.Fire/explosion

2.1.6.Machinery damage

2.17 Wrecked/stranded

2.18 Hostile takeover

2.19Possible consequences

2.2.Types of marine accidents considered

2.2.1.Health Impacts

2.2.2.Environmentalimpacts

2.2.3.Economic impacts

2.3.Overall risk

3.Emergency Response to Transport Accidents on vessels carrying radioactive materials

3.1.Emergency Response Objectives for Maritime Emergencies

3.2.Concept of Operations

3.3.Response phases

3.3.1.The initial response phase

3.3.2.The accident control phase

3.3.3.Fires/Explosion Response

3.3.4.Treating the injured

3.3.5.Assessing the integrity of class 7 shipping containers or packages

3.3.6.Mitigate Release/Spill and Start Environmental Monitoring

3.3.7.Assess and Manage exposed and/or contaminated people

3.4.The Post-emergency phase

4.Instructions

4.1.Instruction 1: Initial notification, confirmation and assessment

4.2.Instruction 2: Response to a Transport Accident

Instruction 3: Placards, labels and markings on packages or vehicles

4.3.Instruction 4: Assessing a package to Determin whether it is damaged.

4.4.Instruction 5: Dangerous source identification based on dose rate, activity or use

4.5.Instruction 6: actions on scene until arrival of emergency medical response team

4.6.Instruction 7: ON SCENE EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE

4.7.Instruction 8: TRANSPORT OF VICTIMS TO HOSPITAL

4.8.Instruction 9: Deciding who should receive a medical examination or later follow-up

4.9.Instruction 10: Public and Emergency Worker decontamination

4.10.Monitoring Equipment

5.UN Number related response guidance (Specific equipment required)

5.1.INTRODUCTION

5.1.1.5.1.1 Rail transport

5.1.2.5.1.2 Air transport

5.2.THE INITIAL RESPONSE

5.3.PROTECTION OF RESPONDERS

5.4.Specific guidance based on NAERG-2008 for Emergency responders (UN Number wise)

5.5.Guides for Second hazard class OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL

6.REFERENCES

7.CONTRIBUTORS

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1.Introduction

1.1.Background

Radioactive materials have vital uses throughout the world that include applications in medicine, research, industry, agriculture and energy generation. Often the mining, and/or manufacture of radioactive material are not in the State where the use takes place. This requires materials to be transported between States.

The transport of radioactive material by sea is an integral part of the international transport network and occurs routinely. The United Nations has recognized the need for a consistent and harmonized legal framework for the transport of all dangerous goods. The IAEA has established regulations for safe transport of radioactive material (TS-R-1). The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has established regulations for the safe transport of all dangerous goods (IMDG Code) by sea. Implementation and compliance with these international regulations will, as far as practicable, mean that the transport of radioactive material by sea is carried out safely. Despite this, vessels including those carrying radioactive material are not immune to accidents.

This transport by sea may pass near to, or through the territorial waters (see Chapter 3.6) of one or more States, for the purposes of this annex these States have been termed "Coastal States".

Coastal States are in general prepared for responding to maritime incidents and accidents in their territorial waters and in adjacent international waters. In addition many will have effective frameworks in place for emergency response to incidents involving radioactive material. However an interface between these two response systems needs to be established to ensure preparedness to respond to maritime emergencies involving radioactive material (including nuclear material). The issue at hand is that a vessel requiring emergency assistance offers some unique problems. Vessels may not be regulated by the coastal state responding to the incident or accident, for example responding to a ship registered in another state while in international waters.

Transport in general can involve accidents, while the transport of radioactive material has an enviable safety record. This annex focuses on transport emergencies where radioactive material is present.

1.2.Objectives

The document is intended to be of use to those involved in the response to a transport emergency where radioactive material is present, including States (flag States and coastal States), the ship’s crew, ship operators and owners, and others involved directly in response. It is a resource that can be used by shipping and coastal states as a reference during a response to an emergency at sea involving a vessel carrying radioactive material.

The annex describes the types of accidents that may occur at sea or in a port and provides guidance on the nature of the response that may be needed for the range of emergencies that may occur.

Guidance and advice is provided on the information that may be available during an event, where and who it may be obtained from. Generic information is provided that may be used in the absence of specific information. The risk management principles should take into account all risks associated with maritime emergencies. Guidance on the application of risk management is offered in an IMO/ICAO publication [Ref IAMSAR Manual]. The information collected should be of use in risk management related to the radiological aspects of dealing effectively and safely with maritime incidents.

Intervention levels provided in this document may be used by emergency responders as an indicator for the implementation of certain response actions and/or escalation of the response.

The information contained herein describes the interface between transport emergency response and radiological emergency response by a State and should be incorporated into existing maritime emergency response systems to enhance the level of preparedness to respond to transport events involving radioactive material (class 7 dangerous goods).

The document provides guidance on the type of information that should be included in a plan, but is not in itself an emergency response plan.

1.3.Scope

The guidance in this document is relevant to incidents and accidents occurring on vessels carrying radioactive materials in accordance with the IMDG code and supplements thereto. Cargo vessels may carry radioactive material, other dangerous goods and non-dangerous cargo. This guidance considers only those specific hazards associated with radioactive material. The IAEA recommends an all hazards approach during the planning and response to incidents and accidents.

The guidance in this document is applicable to incidents and emergencies on board vessels, in international waters, territorial waters and ports.

This guidance is only applicable to response actions performed during initial and accident control phase of an incident or emergency.

This guidance is not applicable to incidents involving the propulsion reactors on nuclear powered ships or Floating Nuclear Power Plants (FNPP’s).

Movement of materials on ships under the command of military forces are outside of the scope of this document, as are nuclear weapons and other armaments.

1.4.Structure

The first emergency responders are the staff from police, Security, Medical and fire brigade: Detailed action guides for specific responders can be referred from IAEA - Manual for First Responders to a Radiological Emergency (2006). This document is intended to provide specific instructions to assist the response to a maritime accident involving radioactive materials.

Chapter 2 describes the type of radioactive materials transported by sea and the type of incidents and accident that may occur.

Chapter 3 describes the response to such incident and accidents. This is supported by a series of response instructions that are presented in Chapter 5. Finally chapter 5 details more specific considerations that should be taken into account depending on the type of packages that may be found onboard the vessel.

2.Transport of radioactive materials by sea

There are many different types of radioactive material that are carried by sea, and they come from many different origins. They can be loosely categorized into the following types:

• Fresh nuclear fuel, spent nuclear fuel and wastes from nuclear fuel reprocessing
• Waste materials
• Low activity bulk products
• Industrial isotopes
• Minerals

Fresh nuclear fuel, spent nuclear fuel and wastes from nuclear fuel reprocessing are those associated with the civilian generation of nuclear power. This material is either very high activity or high value. It is common for these materials to be transported on dedicated ships. These materials are often subject to close supervision, and information regarding them is likely to be readily available in the event of any incident.

Waste materials can originate from any activity involving radioactive materials and they are generally sub-categorized as low level, intermediate level and high-level waste. Material from all three sub-categories is transported by sea, often in large containers. In some cases very large items of facilities are carried by sea, structures that cannot be easily broken up or carried by land may be carried by sea. In general, the greater the risk associated with the cargo the greater the active supervision will be. For many waste materials airborne risks are significant, for others direct radiation is significant.

Many products with low activity that are carried in bulk are transported by sea. A good example is the transport of container loads of smoke detectors. Information on these cargos may be difficult to obtain. Many of these products will offer effectively zero risk even when destroyed.

Radioisotopes are used by many industries around the world including, for example, the offshore oil industry. Sea transport of industrial isotopes is frequent and widespread. These sources can be very large. Most will be carried in competent authority approved packages. Identifying the package approval numbers provides good information for the largest of these sources. Primary risks from isotopes are direct radiation, airborne or surface contamination is less likely to be a significant hazard.

Many minerals contain (naturally occurring) radioactive material, the volume/mass and distances between origin and processing sites mean that sea transport is often the only viable transport method. These minerals are often extracted from the ground and are being moved for processing. As a result the hazard is not often higher than that associated with some sand beaches around the world. Even if the minerals have relatively high radiation levels the primary risk from this material is normally inhalation.

Medical isotopes are extensively used around the world for the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. However, a feature of medical isotopes is that the shorter the half-life is the greater the ratio of benefit/risk. As a result they are most frequently transported by air although they are also carried on some short sea crossings. Medical isotopes are normally intended to be incorporated into the human body, so single dose quantities are not likely to offer a significant risk.

There are many different types of accidents and incidents in a marine environment that can involve vessels transporting radioactive materials. An understanding of the different types of events and their possible significance is important for developing plans and for responding to such events. The international transport requirements are established in order to ensure that the likelihood for radiological events to occur during transport is very low. It is however recommended for coastal states to include transport events in their analyses when planning their emergency response. For most countries it would not require detailed scenario specific emergency response plans. It is however up to the individual countries to decide upon their planning requirements.

There are two likely accident locations: at sea or in/near a port. Both locations have good and bad points from a response point of view. Some of these considerations are outlined in Table 1.

Table 1: Response considerations based on location of event

IN PORT OR NEAR A POPULATION CENTRE / AT SEA
Good Points / -easier to communicate with the vessel
-more response assets potentially available
-easier to evacuate crew
-can potentially move the vessel to an area away from the population centre / -security is easier
-negligible health impact for ashore populations
Bad points / -security may be more challenging depending on the proximity to population
-psycho-social and economic impacts may be more significant / -more difficult to communicate with the vessel
-fewer response assets potentially available
-more difficult to reach and assist the vessel
-difficult to evacuate crew

2.1.Types of marine Events considered

The International Maritime Organization classifies accidents for general cargo ships into several categories. IMO accident types ship accident categories and frequencies (based on historical data) are:

2.1.1.Collision

Collision between two ships is mostly observed in harbours, rivers/canals and coastal waters, but can also happen in open seas. The consequences can vary between slight damage to the ship structure and total loss of the ship and its cargo. A collision may also develop into other types of accidents like fire/explosion and hull damage. Collision scenarios represent about 16% of all identified accidents

2.1.2.Contact

Contact between two vessels mostly occurs in harbours and rivers/canals. The consequences vary, but they are generally of relatively low importance for safety of the crew and the cargo. Contact scenarios represent about 7% of all identified accidents

2.1.3.Foundering

Scenarios where ships sink typically occur in open sea or coastal waters and there are many different types of initiating events that can cause this. Such events are likely to require a rescue operation for the crew. It is likely that the cargo goes down with the ship. Whether the cargo is damaged or not during such an event, depends on the circumstances. In the longer perspective, cargo will normally sooner or later be deteriorated. Operations to recover the ship and its cargo may be considered taking the potential consequences into considerations.

2.1.4.Foundering scenarios represent about 4% of all identified accidents. .Hull damage

Hull damage is often associated with heavy weather in open sea causing cargo shift. This can lead to other scenarios e.g. sinking of the ship.These scenarios represent about 16% of all identified accidents

2.1.5.Fire/explosion

Fires and explosions on board cargo ships usually starts in the engine. Fires and explosions in cargo may also occur and are often related to lack of knowledge or exact documentation of cargo content and which precautions should be taken into account for the transported cargo. A fire/explosion may cause very severe situations threatening the safety of crew and cargo and possibly its surroundings. It should be considered that ships carrying irradiated nuclear fuels (INF) require special arrangements that are designed to mitigate the consequences of an event. Ships of this special type are classified as INF 1, 2 or 3. The different levels of ship have different protection measures to prevent severe consequences to very unlikely events (e.g. severe collision leading to a fire or explosion involving the class 7 cargo) For example, an INF3 certified ship has extensive fire fighting arrangements that should prevent a fire from coming in contact with the class 7 cargo.

Fire and explosion scenarios represent about 8% of all identified accidents

2.1.6.Machinery damage

Machinery damage is often caused by wear out of equipment, maintenance procedures not being carried out properly and failure of gauging equipment. Machinery damage in itself is not directly causing damage to cargo, but might in turn develop into dangerous situations and even emergencies threatening the safety of crew and cargo. Machinery damage scenarios account for nearly 37% of all identified accidents.

2.17 Wrecked/stranded

These accidents are observed in harbours, rivers/canals and coastal waters and are distinguished as powered grounding caused by human errors or technical errors (machinery failure, steering failure) and drift grounding followed by a blackout or loss of propulsion. Wrecked/stranded scenarios represent about 22% of all identified accidents.

2.18 Hostile takeover

Hostile takeover of a transport vessel is a scenario that can be foreseen but with a low probability. Such an event may lead to some of the other scenarios mentioned above. The radiological impact depends on what happens on board.

2.19Possible consequences

The consequences of a marine event involving class 7 cargo may have different types of primary impacts. The most important and direct impacts are:

• health impacts,
• environmental impacts
• economic impacts.

These primary impacts can later on cause secondary effects.

The actual impact from such an event depends on a number or factors

• type of accident
• external conditions, where it happens, weather etc.
• type of nuclides, their activities and form (solid, liquid or gas) and encapsulation
• type of transport packaging

and of course the

• capability to mitigate the consequences

The consequences of a marine event involving class 7 cargo are the total of the health impacts, psychosocial impacts and economic impacts. The following paragraphs examine each of these aspects. It should be noted that the guidance in the document is outside the scope of dealing with psycho-social and economic impacts; however, these aspects are important to planners and decision makers.

2.2.Types of marine accidents considered

2.2.1.Health Impacts

Radiation may in general result in two different types of somatic effects:

-stochastic effects in the form of later development of cancer where the probability increases with increasing radiation doses and where it is assumed that there is no lower threshold..

-deterministic effects in the form of burns or damaged organs when the radiation doses exceed certain very high thresholds.

The international transport regulations are established to ensure that the likelihood for any event to result in any significant radiological health impact is very low. It is however recognised that, like for any other radiological event, care must be taken to ensure that radiation doses are kept as low as reasonably achievable. This especially applies to crew and first responders whenever radioactive materials are uncovered or released into the surroundings.