Japan Atomic Energy Agency / Nuclear Emergency Assistance and Training Center

Emergency Response Activities

The Nuclear Emergency Assistance and Training Center (NEAT) supplies technical supports to nuclear off-site centers.   More specifically, in emergency situation the NEAT supports the Joint Council of Nuclear Disaster Countermeasures that is set up in the off-site center, in the following items:

• Giving technical advices
• Providing information

Moreover, in order to make the countermeasures effectively, we are

• Dispatching experts,
• Providing emergency equipment and materilas, 
• Dispatching staff for monitoring, and
• Providing monitoring equipment.

By using our special vehicles, the NEAT will make the following activities:  

• Measuring the body contamination of residents at the shelters with a body-surface contamination monitoring vehicle and  a whole-body counting vehicle, 
• Dispatching the command vehicle to the site, and 
• Dispatching environmental monitoring vehicles to the site.

Various systems are installed at the NEAT such as (1) to analyze and evaluate accident information in emergency, (2) to communicate with the Off-site Center and other relevant agencies, (3) to response to the queries from the residents, (4) to watch the news report.  We dispatch experts in environmental monitoring to local governments, and they will make a monitoring plan, measure and evaluate internal and external doses of residents, and measure concentrations of radioactive materials.

Emergency Responses to the Accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi NPS

The NEAT has engaged in supportive activities against the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in collaboration with major branches of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) since just after the occurrence of Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake on March 11 in 2011. The earthquake hit also Ibaraki Prefecture where the JAEA/NEAT was located, therefore, the above activities had to be performed in the damage accompanied by the earthquake and tsunami.

The NEAT engaged in various activities such as dispatching staff and materials, giving technical supports, etc. An outline of the NEAT activities, their duration and location are summarized in the table below:

 

We have various special vehicles, which were dispatched to Fukusima Prefecture, within Ibaraki Prefecture and to other districts. The record of their dispatch is shown in the table below:

 

Details are given in "Lessons Learned and Recommendations According to Nuclear Disaster Prevention Based on the Support Activities to the Accident at Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations" (JAEA-Review 2011-049) , which is written in Japanese. Furthermore, the radiation helplines continued until September, 2012.

 

Responses to North Korean Nuclear Test Preparation

After the press report in April 2012 that the impending North Korean nuclear test was highly probable, the JAEA/NEAT established a framework for responding system to the crisis in cooperation with Nuclear Science and Engineering Directorate (NSED) of JAEA. The response system continued 24 hours including holidays for 11 months until March 2013. The response system continued 24 hours including holidays for 11 months until March 2013.

Since February 12, 2013, when the North Korean state media announced it had conducted an underground nuclear test, until February 22, 2013, the NEAT and NSED performed prediction calculation of radioactive material dispersion around Japan including the North Korea by using the WSPEEDI-II code. The prediction results were reported to the Ministry of Education , Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), which was published at its website, and they were utilized by the Ministry of Defense for air sampling with aircrafts of the Japan Air-Self-Defense Force.

Reference is requested to the report "The Establishment of the Framework and Actual Experience for the Prediction of Atmospheric Dispersion of Radionuclides against the Nuclear Test by North Korea" (JAEA-Technology 2013-030) (in Japanese) for details of our responses.

 

Normal Time Activities

Organization of the JAEA/NEAT in normal time

An organization chart of the JAEA/NEAT is indicate here.

 

Training of personnel for nuclear emergency response

(In preparation)

 

Information collection and database update

(In preparation)

 

Nuclear Emergency Exercises

Participation in nuclear emergency exercises

The JAEA/NEAT participates in nuclear emergency exercises organized by the national/local governments, and supports technically the following items:

• Dispatching experts,
• Providing emergency equipment and materials, and
• Dispatching special vehicles.

The table below shows a record of activities of JAEA/NEAT in participation at exercises or drills organized by the national government, local governments or other organizations in FY 2014.

Date	Name of exercise/drill	Number of participants
August 29, 2014	Emergency response drill of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of JAEA	12
August 31, 2014	Nuclear emergency drill of Fukui Prefecture	6
September 3, 2014	ConvEx-2b: International exercise of IAEA to test the arrangements for a request and the provision of assistance	20
September 18, 2014	Pre-training in the Nuclear Regulation Authority for the national nuclear emergency drill	3
October 2 and 3, 2014	Pre-training as personnel of off-site center for the national nuclear emergency drill	3
October 18, 2014	Nuclear emergency drill of Tottori Prefecture	4
October 20, 2014	Pre-training for National nuclear emergency dril in Ishikawa Prefecture	31
October 24, 2014	Nuclear emergency drill of Hokkaido	12
November 2 and 3, 2014	National nuclear emergency drill in Ishikawa Prefecture	36
January 27, 2015	Nuclear emergency drill of Miyagi Prefecture	23
February 6, 2015	Nuclear emergency drill of Shizuoka Prefecture	14
Total number of JAEA/NEAT participants		164