Information system as technical support for the management of nuclear emergencies

Following the Chernobyl accident that affected large European areas, many countries have improved their organizations for the management of radiological emergencies, in order to make them suitable to face situations with a large territorial impact in terms of contamination. In case of accidents with a deep radiological impact, the national competent authority has the role to make decisions about countermeasures to be adopted in order to minimize the consequences of the contamination to population and to the environment. Such countermeasures get adopted on the basis of measured contamination as well as on the basis of the forecast evolution of the radioactive plume. In order to accomplish this role, it is necessary to have, in real time, the availability of all the relevant information required to assess and to continuously update the accident scenario as well as the possibility to perform forecasts about the evolution of the situation. To this purpose ANPA Emergency Centre has designed and implemented an Information System in Support to Nuclear Emergencies Management (SISGEN) which is rapid and reliable in the acquisition and elaboration of huge quantities of data. This paper presents data elaborated by the information system as well as objectives, functions and architecture of themore » system.« less