Emergency Preparedness and Response | Three new documents: Guidance on the HERCA-WENRA-Approach

Following the publication of the EC BSS Directive, Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom, and the joint “HERCA-WENRA* Approach for a better cross-border coordination of protective actions during the response in the early phase of a nuclear accident” in 2013, HERCA published Guidance for Bilateral Arrangements  in 2015 to support the implementation of the associated requirements and principles. The Approach’s aim is to align emergency response arrangements and actions between neighbouring countries or neighbouring territories. This is supported by early information exchanges using existing bilateral and international arrangements as far as possible.

*WENRA – Western European Nuclear Regulators Association

In order to further help the implementation of the joint HERCA-WENRA Approach (HWA), HERCA Working Group on Emergencies has prepared three new Guidance documents.

Supplementary Glossary of Concepts

This guidance document relates to identification and clarification of those parts of the “HERCA-WENRA Approach for a better cross-border coordination of protective actions during the early phase of a nuclear accident“ (HWA) which have been, or may be, interpreted differently based on practical experiences of implementation of the HWA since it was first published in 2014.

Guidance for Strategies for extension of evacuation, sheltering and ITB protective actions

In the event of a nuclear emergency, it may be necessary to extend protective actions beyond the pre-defined emergency planning zones (EPZ) within which detailed planning arrangements have been made. This guidance document describes a set of principles to extend the application of the protective actions of evacuation, sheltering and the distribution of stable iodine (ITB) as described in HWA Part II.

Additional urgent protective actions during the initial phase of a nuclear emergency

This report identifies four discreet groups of urgent protective actions additional to sheltering, ITB, and evacuation in the existing HWA Part II that may be appropriate in more than one country. For additional protective actions this report proposes that they should be considered for distances appropriate to circumstances, which could extend as far as tens of kilometres from the accident location. Additionally, this report recognises that it is unlikely for radiation protection purposes that the additional protective actions would be needed urgently, within hours, beyond the distances mentioned in the report.