Dr. Khammar Mrabit, Director General of the Moroccan Agency for Nuclear and Radiological Safety and Security (AMSSNuR), chaired, on February 25, 2021, a webinar on emergencies triggered by nuclear security events, organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Incident and Emergency Center, for the sharing of information and exchange of experiences on emergency preparedness and response arrangements nuclear security events.

The webinar, which was attended by more than 400 registered participants, was held in Arabic, one of the six official languages of the United Nations system. It was opened by Dr. Mrabit, who recalled the importance of the IAEA’s organization of more and more events in Arabic, which is a great advantage for Arabic-speaking countries, not only because the documents presented are easier to understand, but also because the topics are relevant to the region. Dr. Mrabit also expressed his willingness to strengthen AMSSNuR’s cooperation with the IAEA in order to help the Arabic-speaking member states of the IAEA improve their preparedness and response capacities in the event of nuclear or radiological emergencies.

In addition, a multitude of themes were addressed during this virtual event including (1) raising awareness of nuclear security aspects within the framework of the General Safety Requirements No. GSR Part 7, (2) discussing the challenges of coordinating the response to emergencies triggered by nuclear security events, and (3) raising awareness of the IAEA’s role in preparing for and responding to a nuclear or radiological emergency triggered by a nuclear security event.

In addition, Dr. Mrabit presented the experience of the Kingdom of Morocco, as a Member State of the IAEA, which organized, in collaboration with the IAEA, the very successful ConvEx-3 crisis exercise in 2013, entitled Bab Al Maghrib and in which 59 countries and 8 regional and international organizations took part.

Finally, Dr. Mrabit referred to the good practices that the Kingdom of Morocco has identified and adopted following the organization and participation in this type of exercises, by a significant number of national participants who have demonstrated their firm commitment to ensure the continuous improvement of the preparedness and response to nuclear or radiological emergencies that may occur on the national territory or likely to affect it.