Simulated emergency exercise at Barakah nuclear plant completed

A 36-hour-long simulated emergency at the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant has come to an end.

The exercise was completed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UAE’s National Emergency Crisis & Disaster Management Authority (NCMEA) as part of the ConvEx-3 Barakah UAE programme.

ConvEx-3 is the IAEA’s highest level and most complex emergency exercise.

For the first time in ConvEx-3, experts from France, Korea and the US provided real-time radiation monitoring data from the area around Barakah, in addition to coordinating live tests with 111 laboratories around the world.

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The last ConvEx-3 was held in 2017 and hosted by Hungary.

A social media simulator was also used throughout the exercise to test communication arrangements for social networks.

These exercises are conducted every three to five years to test safety arrangements in case of an improbable mishap.

The event, attended by 77 member states and 12 international organisations, was largely successful as reported by NCEMA.

The international agency will soon draft a report outlining good practices and areas for further improvement.

This is expected to strengthen national and international preparedness to respond to nuclear and radiological emergencies.