The IAEA General Conference of Member States welcomed today the new International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), a tool to communicate the safety significance of nuclear and radiological events to the technical communities and the public. In the adopted resolution, the General Conference also urged Member States to designate INES national officers and utilize the scale.
The new INES is the result of a thorough review process involving in-depth discussions among the INES participating Member States. "More than 63 countries use INES to classify the severity of events associated with the transport, storage and use of radioactive materials and radiation sources, whether these occur in a facility or not," commented the IAEA´s INES Officer Rejane Spiegelberg-Planer.
South Africa´s A.K. Stott, Chairman of the INES Advisory Committee, anticipates that with the new edition of the INES manual, expected to be made available early 2009, INES will be widely used by the Member States, thus becoming the worldwide scale for putting in proper perspective the safety significance of nuclear and radiation events.
Background
Since 1990 the scale has been applied to classify events at nuclear power plants, then extended to enable it to be applied to all installations associated with the civil nuclear industry. By 2006, it had been adapted to meet the growing needs for communication of the significance of all events associated with the transport, storage and use of radioactive material and radiation sources.
The IAEA has coordinated its development in cooperation with the OECD/NEA and with the support of more than 60 Member States through their officially designated INES National Officers.
The current version of the INES manual was adopted 1 July 2008. With this new edition, it is anticipated that INES will be widely used by the Member States and become the worldwide scale for putting into the proper perspective the safety significance of nuclear and radiation events.