With little or no warning, nuclear installations around the world could be exposed to natural hazards, from floods and earthquakes to volcanic eruptions, wildfires and more. To assist nuclear power plants, research reactors and other facilities handling nuclear material in the response to these adverse external events, the IAEA is developing a system that will alert the Agency of such events that could potentially affect nuclear sites. The system would then trigger the Agency’s response and services offered. “Risks posed by natural hazards are increasing in frequency and intensity because of climate change,” said Paolo Contri, Head of the External Events Section at the IAEA. Climate change is affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Our new External Events Notification System will help countries prevent, mitigate and manage risks related to natural hazards,” Contri added.
The system, abbreviated as EENS, is being developed in collaboration with the University of Hawaii’s Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and Tenefit, an Internet application developer. PDC’s technologies and methodologies originated to help protect the Hawaiian Islands and vulnerable communities throughout the Pacific from natural hazards and have expanded over time to cover the world. “We understand the importance of monitoring, alerting and assessing risk, especially as we observe climate change phenomena and increased frequency and severity of natural hazards,” said PDC’s Deputy Executive Director Chris Chiesa.
The EENS will be based on PDC’s DisasterAWARE system, a multi-hazard monitoring and early warning platform. EENS will provide the IAEA access to hazard and impact information for timely reaction to events that could threaten the safety of nuclear facilities.
