Recent involvement with the European Commission under the project “Enhancing and Strengthening the Response to a Radiological or Nuclear Emergency in ASEAN (REG 3.01/22)”, which has been going on since January 2024, and participation in the workshop on DSS customizations and the training course on Source Terms in the Philippines from May 20 – 24, 2024 allow OAP to boost its EPR capabilities.
As a result, a new DSS (Decision Support System) capability has been added to EPR infrastructure at OAP. JRODOS, a JAVA-based program which has been a successor of RODOS since 2010, has been implemented and more importantly has been customized to better assess radiological consequences from nuclear accidents that might occur in the country or neighboring countries. The model simulations from JRODOS allow DSS operators at NuREAC (Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Administration Center) at OAP to real-time operation for off-site emergency management as well as applications as a tool for exercises, preparedness and planning. The current customizations are based on the TRIGA source terms, a national and regional GIS-based map and an access to Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA. Noticeable improvement with respect to EPR capabilities is the ability to predict the movement of radiological plume up to 48 hours after the accident occurs and its potential consequences in output metrics which is, by far, many more than NuREAC ever needs for its counter and response measures to nuclear and radiological accidents.
This information is so vital that it may dictate life or death of any personnel ranging from responders, operators and the public.
Predictions of dose rates after hypothetical explosion at TRR-1/M-1 on May 28, 2024, 7:00 am (ICT)
While this DSS capability is still hot on the plate, immediate improvements have already been planned. OAP is planning to incorporate into JRODOS a more specific GIS-based map which can provide a better resolution and more necessary information. In addition, a local data set of NWP from the Thai Meteorological Department or from the Malaysian Meteorological Department can be used to provide a finer time-step calculation.
