Periodic Reporting for period 3 - INCLUDING (Innovative Cluster for Radiological and Nuclear Emergencies)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-08-01 do 2023-07-31
INCLUDING is an orchestrated action among the project partners to enhance the Member States’ collaboration on a sensitive matter like Radiological and Nuclear Emergencies (RNEs). The range of intervention of the project is broad as required by the plurality of scenarios that may initiate a RNE and by the set of actions to put in place for the prevention, immediate response, second response and recovery phases. In this framework it is essential for Member States, as also dictated by the “Action Plan to enhance preparedness against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security risks” issued by the EC on 18.10.2017 to:
• Steadily update training and exercise programs to realistic scenarios and promote the uptake of new technologies and procedures;
• Plan an efficient Pan-European collaboration scheme for sharing expertise and equipment and aimed at improving the mutual assistance program with a more rapid resources mobilization;
• Plan and execute joint exercises to test and evaluate a common approach to possible intervention scenarios and to promote standardization and interoperability.
The INCLUDING workplan is specifically tailored to address all these challenges and from the the Nuclear Safety and Security perspectives, as in the definition of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In this framework, INCLUDING aims also at contributing to the implementation in Members States of the IAEA guidelines of the establishment of a Nuclear Safety and Security Culture Regime. The contribution from INCLUDING is, in particular, the development of a Federation of testbeds where to test in simulated but realistic scenarios innovative technological solutions and to raise the awareness of Nuclear Safety and Security organizations about the usefulness of training and exercise programs. With raising international tensions involving threats to nuclear installations and alleged deviations from non-nuclear proliferation treaties, the project marks a timely action to enhance the Member States capacities and capabilities to prevent and react to worst case scenarios.
• Steadily update training and exercise programs to realistic scenarios and promote the uptake of new technologies and procedures;
• Plan an efficient Pan-European collaboration scheme for sharing expertise and equipment and aimed at improving the mutual assistance program with a more rapid resources mobilization;
• Plan and execute joint exercises to test and evaluate a common approach to possible intervention scenarios and to promote standardization and interoperability.
The INCLUDING workplan is specifically tailored to address all these challenges and from the the Nuclear Safety and Security perspectives, as in the definition of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In this framework, INCLUDING aims also at contributing to the implementation in Members States of the IAEA guidelines of the establishment of a Nuclear Safety and Security Culture Regime. The contribution from INCLUDING is, in particular, the development of a Federation of testbeds where to test in simulated but realistic scenarios innovative technological solutions and to raise the awareness of Nuclear Safety and Security organizations about the usefulness of training and exercise programs. With raising international tensions involving threats to nuclear installations and alleged deviations from non-nuclear proliferation treaties, the project marks a timely action to enhance the Member States capacities and capabilities to prevent and react to worst case scenarios.
The work performed by the INCLUDING project till the end of the third reporting period (M48) is in line with the planned workplan despite the project suffered the impact of COVID 19 pandemic at its initial stage.
Central to the INCLUDING vision is the development of a Federation of Pan-European testbeds for the execution of exercise and training activities in the RN emergency domain and managed at a centralized level by a web-based tool, the INCLUDING Web Based Platform (IWBP). The developmental phase of the IWBP has progressed in view of the finalization scheduled at M36. The beta version of the IWBP has been presented to INCLUDING partners and also to external stakeholders during an online webinar on 21th September 2020 and the comprehension of the tool from the project partners has been steadily growing.
Another key task of INCLUDING is to assess how the scenarios of RN threats leading to emergencies are evolving. The main outcome of this action has been the "Evolution of Radiological and Nuclear Threats: Intermediate Note for Task 3.1" available on Zenodo platform (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4001778). The report analyzes the trends which are likely to characterize radiological and nuclear (RN) events that might be conducted by criminal or terrorist actors in the future. Within Task3.2 of WP3 are under study the main gaps in the exercise and training functions related to RN preparedness and with a focus on single Member State capacity building. It have been considered seven relevant gaps from the Encircle project dynamic catalogue and others new gaps related to the medical dimension of RN emergencies. The results have been further elaborated and updated with emerging scenarios also related to the Russian Federation invasion to Ukraine and the situation at ZPP power plant.
In WP4 INCLUDING has been revising the "EDEN training matrix" approach in support of developing the respective INCLUDING one, which aims to establish a set of learning objectives that can be easily adapted to any RN education and training activity. It is now available a stable and almost definitve version of the "INCLUDING Training Matrix" that has been adopted in an independent way by the organizers of the Rome Joint Actions.
In WP5 INCLUDING so far the project has organized six different Joint Actions and as follows:
- A Large Scale Demo in Athens (Greece) - June 2021
- A Field Technical Exericse (FTX) in Mikkeli (Finland) - September 2021
- A Field Technical Exercise in Saclay (France) - October 2021
- A Field Technical Exercise in Budapest - June 2022
- A Table Top Exercise (TTX) in Bologna (Italy) - September 2022
- A Large Scale Execise in Rome - May 2023
For INCLUDING collaboration with other EU and international projects is an important way for cross-fertilization and for avoiding duplication of efforts. WP6 is specifically devoted to this aim and a very important recent result has been the participation of INCLUDING to the CSTAC (CBRN STAndardization Cluster), a network of EU project working togheter to improve the adoption of common standards in Members States in the CBRN domain.
The dissemination activities of the project have been intensified as results became available. The number of scientific publications has been growing and with most of them in the Open Access format. The project results have been presented to workshops and conferences and in particular at CERIS events in Brussels. The project has also been invited to manage a booth at the Security Research Event 2023 in Brussels (October 2023) and also to conduct a short drill in front of the audience and to present a specific tool developed in the project.
The exploitation strategy has been refined and the project has applied for support from the Horizion Results Booster, a free of charge service provided by the European Commission to give supprot to projects to imrpve their exploitation strategy. At the same time the WP7 has been further detailing the list of Key Exploitable Results (KER) and the strategy to ensure continuity of operation to the INCLUDING Federation after the project conclusion.
Central to the INCLUDING vision is the development of a Federation of Pan-European testbeds for the execution of exercise and training activities in the RN emergency domain and managed at a centralized level by a web-based tool, the INCLUDING Web Based Platform (IWBP). The developmental phase of the IWBP has progressed in view of the finalization scheduled at M36. The beta version of the IWBP has been presented to INCLUDING partners and also to external stakeholders during an online webinar on 21th September 2020 and the comprehension of the tool from the project partners has been steadily growing.
Another key task of INCLUDING is to assess how the scenarios of RN threats leading to emergencies are evolving. The main outcome of this action has been the "Evolution of Radiological and Nuclear Threats: Intermediate Note for Task 3.1" available on Zenodo platform (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4001778). The report analyzes the trends which are likely to characterize radiological and nuclear (RN) events that might be conducted by criminal or terrorist actors in the future. Within Task3.2 of WP3 are under study the main gaps in the exercise and training functions related to RN preparedness and with a focus on single Member State capacity building. It have been considered seven relevant gaps from the Encircle project dynamic catalogue and others new gaps related to the medical dimension of RN emergencies. The results have been further elaborated and updated with emerging scenarios also related to the Russian Federation invasion to Ukraine and the situation at ZPP power plant.
In WP4 INCLUDING has been revising the "EDEN training matrix" approach in support of developing the respective INCLUDING one, which aims to establish a set of learning objectives that can be easily adapted to any RN education and training activity. It is now available a stable and almost definitve version of the "INCLUDING Training Matrix" that has been adopted in an independent way by the organizers of the Rome Joint Actions.
In WP5 INCLUDING so far the project has organized six different Joint Actions and as follows:
- A Large Scale Demo in Athens (Greece) - June 2021
- A Field Technical Exericse (FTX) in Mikkeli (Finland) - September 2021
- A Field Technical Exercise in Saclay (France) - October 2021
- A Field Technical Exercise in Budapest - June 2022
- A Table Top Exercise (TTX) in Bologna (Italy) - September 2022
- A Large Scale Execise in Rome - May 2023
For INCLUDING collaboration with other EU and international projects is an important way for cross-fertilization and for avoiding duplication of efforts. WP6 is specifically devoted to this aim and a very important recent result has been the participation of INCLUDING to the CSTAC (CBRN STAndardization Cluster), a network of EU project working togheter to improve the adoption of common standards in Members States in the CBRN domain.
The dissemination activities of the project have been intensified as results became available. The number of scientific publications has been growing and with most of them in the Open Access format. The project results have been presented to workshops and conferences and in particular at CERIS events in Brussels. The project has also been invited to manage a booth at the Security Research Event 2023 in Brussels (October 2023) and also to conduct a short drill in front of the audience and to present a specific tool developed in the project.
The exploitation strategy has been refined and the project has applied for support from the Horizion Results Booster, a free of charge service provided by the European Commission to give supprot to projects to imrpve their exploitation strategy. At the same time the WP7 has been further detailing the list of Key Exploitable Results (KER) and the strategy to ensure continuity of operation to the INCLUDING Federation after the project conclusion.
During the first forty-eight months of the project INCLUDING has reached the high level objectives to enhance the collaboration between the stakholders in Members States on a sensitive matter like nuclear safety and security. In particular the project has put in place initiatives at various level and in a wide range of interventions to strengthen the operative part of Member States nuclear security regime as suggested by IAEA in the publication "Objective and essential elements of a State Nuclear Security Regime". In particular INCLUDING has started to assess main weaknesses in the Nuclear security training programs and in the prevention and response capabilities of Member States. The organization of practical exercises with nuclear security scenarios has progressed and in order to promote sharing of equipment and expertise between participants countries. The main societal impact of INCLUDING is a improved coordination of stakeholders at Pan-European level to improve prevention, detection and response to RN emergencies with benefits for the EU citizens safety and security. At present, INCLUDING can be considered the reference project at EU level for promoting and introducing innovation in the RN energencies domain.