Participants of the 49th WPNEM annual meeting.

For over 30 years, the NEA, through its Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) under the Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health (CRPPH), has been involved in improving international preparedness and response to nuclear or radiological accidents through the development, conduct and evaluation of the International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series. More recently, its scope has expanded to include preparedness for recovery efforts. The group has also adapted to address the evolving risk profile of nuclear and radiological emergencies, particularly those arising from new technologies and armed conflicts.

The WPNEM held its 2024 annual meeting from 15 to 17 October in London, United Kingdom. The event brought together approximately 50 emergency preparedness experts in person, with an additional 30 joining online, to discuss updates on the programme of work, including revisions to the NEA Protective Measures Handbook. The group also held three topical sessions focused on INEX-6 country feedback, emergency preparedness and response for small modular reactors (SMRs), and radiological protection during armed conflict.

The INEX-5 cycle is nearing completion, with three publications underway covering the main feedback from the fifth exercise, primarily addressing the cross-border harmonisation of protection strategies in the event of a nuclear or radiological accident. The three publications are:

INEX-6, the largest INEX exercise in over 20 years with 26 participating countries, was held in early 2024 and focused on the long-term recovery phase after a nuclear or radiological accident.  During the 49th WPNEM meeting, a topical session was held with countries providing specific country feedback from INEX-6, and the NEA Secretariat sharing some preliminary findings from the exercise evaluation and on the complementarity and integration with the CRPPH Expert Group on a Post-Accident Food Safety Framework (EGFSF). The group agreed on a roadmap to complete the exercise evaluation and work towards the publication of a report that will cover not only the lessons learnt from the exercise but also serve as a reference for conducting future recovery exercises.

During the topical session on emergency preparedness and response for SMRs, a draft mandate for an expert group was presented and discussed. The group is expected to start its mandate in early 2025 and will analyse how to apply a graded approach to emergency preparedness to address strategic approaches to protective actions tailored to the unique contexts of SMR deployments.

Finally, outcomes from the DSA-NEA Workshop on Radiological protection during armed conflict were presented, along with the roadmap for the CRPPH Task Group on Radiological Protection during Armed Conflict (TGRPAC), which held its kick-off meeting in September 2024. The group agreed to maintain close ties with the Task Group and to continue evaluating the need for specific efforts addressing topics such as nuclear detonation, context-specific threat analysis, orphan sources, and the rethinking of the reference levels and the justification of protective actions in this complex context, among other things.

The next annual WPNEM meeting is scheduled to take place in October 2025, in Paris, France.