Sweden has good emergency preparedness in the event of a nuclear or radiological emergency. However, in pace with a generation shift with many specialists entering retirement, there is a growing shortage of in-depth expertise within the field. This is one conclusion drawn from the annual risk and vulnerability analysis conducted by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.
Each year, the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority conducts a risk and vulnerability analysis. This year’s report concludes that emergency preparedness for nuclear or radiological emergencies needs to continually adapt to a changing world and different threat scenarios. For this reason, it is important to place a special focus on education and training programmes for new specialists.
Although emergency preparedness in Sweden is good, there are certain shortcomings, for example a shortage of sufficient in-depth expertise in certain fields. This is a result of many specialists within the fields of nuclear safety and nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness entering retirement. At the same time, it is difficult to recruit people to replace them, and those who are recruited are young and relatively inexperienced in their field. The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority estimates that twenty years are needed to achieve in-depth expertise in the above fields.
Over the past few years, the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority has supported and worked towards the establishment of university-level programmes within the field of emergency radiation protection. The first curricula have now been approved by the University of Gothenburg. The range of courses will also be developed further so that the courses lead to a university degree.
In this year’s risk and vulnerability analysis, the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority also concluded that cross-governmental exercises are needed more frequently in terms of preparedness for nuclear energy emergencies; here, all authorities involved in crisis management should collaborate.
For more information, please contact: Robert Finck, analyst at the Emergency Preparedness and Response Section, telephone +46 8 799 42 54
Read the entire report (in Swedish only):
Strålsäkerhetsmyndighetens risk- och sårbarhetsanalys
med förmågebedömning 2010