Within the framework of the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the Event of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, AMSSNuR participated, in close collaboration with the relevant ministerial departments, in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) exercise ConvEx-2b, which took place from 9 to 11 March 2021.
This exercise is the second level of complexity of the exercises organized by the IAEA with the specific objective of testing international arrangements for the provision of assistance in the event of a nuclear or radiological emergency.
During the first day of the exercise, the IAEA’s Incident and Emergency Centre (IEC) received requests for assistance from Member States participating in the exercise.
On the second day of the exercise, the IAEA issued the notification of a hypothetical transport accident involving industrial radioactive gauges that occurred at Mihajlo Pupin Bridge over the Danube in Belgrade. Four people were injured, overexposed and contaminated. The IAEA has sent a request for assistance to Morocco made by Serbia for medical assistance and the reconstitution of doses for the wounded.
Morocco responded favourably to this request to assist in the radiological assessment of the overexposed and contaminated casualties during the accident by providing them with a team of four experts in radiation safety and radiation protection to provide remote advice within the framework of an assistance action plan drawn up in close collaboration with Serbia and the IAEA.
The last day focused on the review and approval of the detailed action plan of the offer of assistance by stakeholders.
This exercise provided an opportunity to exercise national alert and preparedness arrangements for national assistance capacities, thus ensuring an effective response in the event of an emergency and to be able to obtain the possible registration of national capacities in the IAEA response and assistance network.