As a designated public organization under the Basic Act on Disaster Management and the Armed Attack Situation Response Law, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (hereinafter referred to as "JAEA") provides human and technical support to the national government, local governments, police, fire departments, etc., in the event of a nuclear disaster. To effectively provide such support, the Nuclear Emergency Assistance and Training Center (hereinafter referred to as "NEAT") has been established in Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture and Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture as a base of operations.

1. Background of the Establishment of the NEAT

  JAEA is positioned as a designated public institution by the Prime Minister under the provisions of Article 2, Item 5 of the Basic Act on Disaster Control Measures. Therefore, in the event of a nuclear disaster, JAEA is obligated to respond to requests for assistance from the national and local governments based on the "Basic Disaster Management Plan (Nuclear Emergency Preparedness)."*1
  The Tokai-mura JCO criticality accident in September 1999 left us with various lessons learned and reflections on emergency response. As a result of the review of the Basic Disaster Management Plan based on these reflections and lessons learned, it was indicated that the JAEA should strengthen its activities as a designated public agency for nuclear disaster prevention, and the JAEA was established on March 25, 2002. The roles and obligations of JAEA as a designated public agency in the "Basic Disaster Management Plan (Nuclear Emergency Preparedness)."*1 are as follows.

• Provision of information to promote effective disaster prevention activities
• Establishment of a system for dispatching experts and the provision of materials and equipment
• Provision of emergency monitoring equipment and support for emergency monitoring activities
• Responding to accidents during transportation of nuclear fuel materials, etc.
• Support for public exposure dose assessment
• Support for screening and decontamination
• Responding to inquiries about radiation safety from residents, etc.

2．Positioning of the NEAT

  As mentioned above, the NEAT was established to serve as a base of activities for the JAEA, as a designated public institution, to materialize and make effective the disaster prevention activities required in the "Basic Disaster Management Plan (Nuclear Emergency Preparedness)."*1
  JAEA has established the"Disaster management Operations Plan of Japan Atomic Energy Agency," which defines specific disaster prevention activities to be implemented during emergency and preparation phases, etc., in several phases of a nuclear disaster, as listed below.
（１）Preliminary measures for a nuclear disaster
（２）Information gathering situation or alert situation
（３）In the event of a facility site emergency (Article 10 event of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness*2)
（４）In the event of a general emergency (Article 15 event of the Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency Preparedness*2)
（５）Measures for restoration from a nuclear emergency