Period: 3-5 October 2023
Organiser: National Commission for the Control of Nuclear Activities (CNCAN)
Locations: Cernavodă NPP, Fetești, Constanța, Ciolpani, Bucharest.
The main goal of this exercise is to verify and confirm the integration of nuclear emergency response plans and procedures within the national emergency management system in accordance with the National Nuclear or Radiological Emergency Response Plan.
The simulation of a nuclear emergency at the Cernavodă NPP will test the emergency response capabilities of all actors involved, licensee, local and national public authorities, as well as the international assistance received from partners in Norway, USA, France, Israel, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Roles assigned to exercise participants: Actors, Players, Controllers, Evaluators, Observers
Support roles: Media Team, Logistics, Organisation
Contact: Petre Min, Exercise Director - petre.min@cncan.ro
Exercise Valahia has multi-level objectives. Level 1 objectives are those shared by most participating organisations:
- Test nuclear emergency plans and interfaces between responding organisations.
- Verify the connections, arrangements and governance structures and their implementation.
- Assess roles, responsibilities, capabilities and integration between emergency response organisations.
- Identify best practices, gaps and areas for improvement through Level 1 assessment.
- National Meteorological Administration
- National Agency for Environmental Protection
- Nuclear Agency for Radioactive Waste
- National Commission for the Control of Nuclear Activity
- Cernavodă NPP/ Nuclearelectrica
- Cernavodă City Hall
- Horia Hulubei National Research and Development Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH)
- National Institute of Public Health
- Constanta Prefecture
- Ministry of Internal Affairs through its structures DGMO, IGSU, DSU and CNCI, CNCCI, CNSU
- Ministry of Health
- Ministry of National Defence
- Special Telecommunications Service
- Emergency Clinical Hospital Bucharest
- Bucharest University Emergency Hospital
- DSA Norway
- IRSN France
- DGFSCP Bulgaria
- IGSU Moldova
- DoE USA
- RPC & FRD Lithuania
- Paks NPP Hungary
- IAEC Israel
- International Atomic Energy Agency
The Valahia 2016 exercise was a national exercise based on a severe accident scenario at the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant with the aim of testing the response capability of the plant operator, local authorities and responsible national authorities. The construction of the scenario was based on the evolution of a severe accident following an earthquake of a magnitude greater than that considered in the plant design basis. Following a complex planning and preparation process, the exercise involved more than 500 participants from 15 organisations and more than 100 machines and equipment.
In less than a year, the Exercise Planning Group aimed to develop a realistic and challenging scenario in which all the authorities involved could achieve their exercise objectives and successfully test their emergency response plans.
The objectives of the exercise were to:
- Test nuclear and radiological emergency response plans and interfaces between emergency response organisations;
- Test the cooperative relationships and tools (e.g., protocols, response procedures, etc.) of participating organizations and how to implement them;
- Test the roles, responsibilities, capabilities of participating organisations and their integration into the EMS;
- Identification of current best practices, identification of gaps and areas for improvement as a result of the assessment of the Level 1 objectives of the exercise.
The evaluation of the exercise was carried out with the main objective of tracking the interoperability and coordination of the participating organisations.
Interoperability has been defined as the ability of organisations, starting from the installation operator to national organisations, to respond together to a general emergency in a coherent, effective and efficient manner.
A. Establish the nuclear or radiological emergency response organisations with specific references for notification, activation and coordination of emergency response;
B. Protect the public reviewing emergency protective actions as they relate to the public to ensure that optimum safety is established and maintained, along with the provision of services to manage the psycho-social effects of the event;
C. Protect the emergency workers reviewing emergency protective actions in relation to emergency workers to ensure that optimum safety is established and maintained, together with the provision of services, to manage the psycho-social effects of the event;
D. Dissemination of scientific and technical information that enabled the actual situational awareness required for technical decision making to make recommendations and scientific analysis of available data;
E. Ensure effective health response refers to the coordination of health services and the exchange of appropriately related medical information that is supported by external organizations; and
F. Public Relations Coordination, which examined the consistency of information provided to the public and the ability of all levels of government and Nuclearelectrica to coordinate public relations messages.