Survey on Emergency Action Levels in the United States of America

Kimura, Masanori ; Watanabe, Norio; Homma, Toshimitsu

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) emphasizes the importance of emergency planning and requires the development of emergency response to implement effectively protective measures in IAEA Safety requirement GS-R-2. In the United States of America (USA), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requires licensees, as a condition of licensing, the development of emergency planning including emergency classification and Emergency Action Levels (EALs) scheme. In order to consider incorporating emergency classification and EALs scheme into emergency preparedness and response in Japan, we surveyed the EALs scheme in the USA. This report provides the outline of EALs guideline, NEI99-01 "Methodology for Development of Emergency Action Levels", developed by Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and the brief descriptions on 8 accidents where an emergency was declared in the USA. As well, the findings from the survey are summarized.