This publication provides guidance and recommendations on arrangements to be made at the preparedness stage, as part of overall emergency preparedness, for the termination of a nuclear or radiological emergency and the subsequent transition from the emergency exposure situation to either a planned exposure situation or an existing exposure situation. It elaborates the prerequisites that need to be fulfilled so that responsible authorities can declare the nuclear or radiological emergency ended and it gives detailed guidance on adapting and lifting protective actions. This publication, jointly sponsored by 10 international organizations (FAO, IAEA, ICAO, ILO, IMO, INTERPOL, OECD/NEA, UN OCHA, WHO and WMO) is intended to assist Member States in the application of IAEA Safety Standards Series Nos GSR Part 3 and GSR Part 7.

This publication provides a practical resource for emergency planning, and fulfils, in part, functions assigned to the IAEA in the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency. If used effectively, it will help users to develop a capability to adequately respond to a nuclear or radiological emergency.

This publication focuses on the medical management of individuals involved in radiation emergencies, especially those who have been exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation. Its primary objective is to provide practical information, to be used for treatment decisions by medical personnel during a radiation emergency. It also addresses general and specific measures for the medical management of individuals who have been internally contaminated with radionuclides. This publication is complementary to other publications developed by the IAEA in the medical area of radiation emergencies.

This Safety Guide supports Member States in developing arrangements for communicating with the public and media and coordinating official information in the response to a nuclear or radiological emergency. These arrangements facilitate the successful implementation of protective actions and the delivery of consistent messages. Specifically, the Safety Guide describes the infrastructure and processes needed to provide useful, timely, truthful, consistent, clear and appropriate information to the public in the event of a nuclear or radiological emergency; respond to incorrect information and rumors; and respond to requests for information from the public and from the news and information media. It will help ensure effective and uniform public information and media communications arrangements during nuclear and radiological emergencies. The guidance is applicable for such emergencies, irrespective of the initiator, whether that be natural event, human error, mechanical or other failure, or a nuclear security event.

Aims to provide guidance on preparedness and response for a nuclear or radiological emergency, to describe appropriate responses to a range of emergencies, and to provide background information on past experience, thus helping the user to better implement arrangements that address the underlying issues.

Supplement 3, “Guidance for Protective Action Strategies,” to NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1, “Criteria for Preparation and Evaluation of Radiological Emergency Response Plans and Preparedness in Support of Nuclear Power Plants,” updates the previous version of Supplement 3, “Criteria for Protective Action Recommendations for Severe Accidents,” issued July 1996. Supplement 3 provides a protective action strategy development tool based on recent technical information and is intended for use by nuclear power reactor licensees to develop site-specific protective action recommendation procedures. Offsite response organizations should use Supplement 3 to develop protective action strategy guidance for decision makers. The guidance of Supplement 3 provides an acceptable method to comply with Appendix E to Part 50, Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Section IV, paragraph 3 in the use of evacuation time estimates in the formulation of protective action recommendations (PARs) for the plume exposure emergency planning zone, and provides guidance for the provisions of 10 CFR 50.47(b)(10) in the development of a range of PARs. Supplement 3 also provides guidance to support the information in NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1 that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission finds to be an acceptable method of meeting the requirements in 10 CFR 50.47(b)(7) for the development of a public information program. However, licensees may identify alternative methods of compliance with these requirements.