New Masters’ Programme on Emergency Preparedness and Response Commences in St. Petersburg

“This programme will serve to enrich the capacity of future responders, emergency planners and decision-makers to efficiently implement the relevant IAEA safety standards, thus, promoting their application and harmonization across the globe,” said Lydie Evrard, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security.

Dimitry Arseniev, Vice-rector of International Affairs at the University highlighted his institution’s goals for the collaboration: “The programme’s mission is to improve the safety of nuclear facilities by improving preparedness and response. Of course, we want our graduates to apply their knowledge of preparedness, so that they never have to apply their knowledge of response.”

“The goal of the IAEA Master’s programme is to support national authorities in their capacity building and thereby in establishing and maintaining internationally-harmonized frameworks to deal with nuclear and radiological emergencies. We want to train a new generation of experts who are equipped to handle any nuclear or radiological emergency, whether it occurs as a standalone event, or in combination with other conventional emergencies, such as a natural disaster,” said Katerina Kouts, an IAEA Emergency Preparedness Officer.

The curriculum offers a set of core and elective courses to build comprehensive knowledge in this area. The core modules provide information on general, functional and infrastructural arrangements relevant for emergency preparedness and response in line with the IAEA’s safety standards, while suggested electives provide more detail on topics such as assessment and prognosis, medical radiation emergency management, development or emergency plans, communication and advanced EPR technologies.

“From diplomats and emergency managers to first responders and public health advisers, the programme was developed so that it is suitable for people from diverse backgrounds,” said Kouts.

The collaboration with the University also tests one of the core ideas of the curriculum designers: that the programme be adaptable, flexible, and easily tailored to the specific context and education requirements of the implementing institution and country.

“For instance, an interested university may decide to run the programme over one year. They may even choose to integrate it as an additional module or elective course into an existing Masters’ programme,” said Svetlana Nestoroska Madjunarova, IAEA Emergency Preparedness Coordinator. “We wanted to make sure that this Master’s programme is applicable to all countries, regardless of whether they have a nuclear power programme or not.”