REQUIREMENTS OF DECISION-SUPPORT TOOLS FOR COORDINATING THE NATIONAL RESPONSE TO NUCLEAR EMERGENCIES

Effective management of a national response to a nuclear emergency rel ies on decision-makers having sufficient information at the appropriat e time. Numerous decision support tools have been developed to address the specific and individual needs of decision-makers during an emerge ncy. These tools are designed to assist personnel under extreme pressu re to deal with on-site, off-site, regional and national issues that m ay arise. This paper describes the issues that national organisations responding to nuclear emergencies are required to address in order to ensure that accurate and timely information is prepared. During the ea rly phases of an emergency, limited information will be available to t he decision-makers. Automated systems such as the Radioactive Incident Monitoring Network (RIMNET) in the UK that undertake continuous monit oring on a national scale can be used to provide early indications of the location and radiation levels above the background level arising f rom a radioactive plume.