July 5 through 26, 2023, under the Instructor Training Program (ITP), the Nuclear Human Resource Development Center (NuHRDeC) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) hosted a three-week instructor training course (ITC) on the subject of the nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness (NREP) in the vicinity of Tokai city (Japan). On behalf of the branch ‘Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology’ of the National Nuclear Center RK A.A. Kharchenko, a team lead from the Monitoring, Ecological and Analytical Research Department, participated in the course.
ITC provides opportunities to gain a broad range of knowledge in the field of nuclear and radiation safety as well as to expand the international cooperation in Asian countries. ITC NREP aims at training instructors-to-be in nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness. The course involves lectures on basic subjects such as radiation protection for first responders and applied subjects such as the description of the ‘Fukushima’ NPP accident including response exercises. Being an instructor, a course participant can be employed in arranging and hosting follow-up training courses (FTC) in their countries.
As part of the course, participants visited a memorial museum of the Fukushima disaster (the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum) and the decommissioning archive center of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO Decommissioning Archive Center), which was initially names as the Energy Museum. The museums provide a chronological history prior to the natural disaster, earthquake and tsunami as well as of the subsequent nuclear power plant accident using exhibits and video. The archive center also introduces visitors to the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s viewpoint that caused the accident.
