Improvement of emergency information for nuclear emergency management

Watanabe, Fumitaka 

JCO accident revealed that parties concerned had no effective tools to quickly share important information about the accident with each other. Some application examples of the network-based information system for emergency management have been employed. Based on lessons, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) developed the Emergency Information Clearinghouse (ECHO) in 2002. ECHO has been in operation 24/7 as an information tool on a dedicated-line network for nuclear emergency response and connects nationwide 22 off-site centers, 3 central government emergency operations centers and our organization named NEAT. ECHO has been used for trainings and drills for dozens of times to date. ECHO has evolved to become an efficient information sharing tool through several improvements. The system enables to unify information, enables to the separately located parties to share proper information in a timely manner and enables to minimize the load of managing a great deal of information.