International experts prepare for nuclear emergencies in Austria
EGGENDORF, Austria: Experts from around the globe gathered at a rural military facility Wednesday for a training exercise aimed at boosting their performance during nuclear emergencies.
The roughly 180 participants — including government agencies, institutes, companies and nuclear power plants located as far apart as Australia, Canada, Germany and Iran — spent the day detecting, identifying and measuring radiation on the sprawling compound south of the capital, Vienna.
Wednesday's session was part of a five-day training program that began Monday and was organized by Austrian Research Centers GmbH, in cooperation with the Austrian Armed Forces and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
The aim was to prepare participants, divided into teams, for emergency situations such as terrorist attacks and other scenarios involving radiation leaks. Radiation poisoning grabbed headlines late last year when Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer, died in a London hospital after being poisoned by radioactive polonium-210.
Organizers, including Brig. Gen. Norbert Fuerstenhofer of the Austrian NBC Defense School, said they hoped the event would enable participants to learn from each other — and to make connections that could come in handy in case of an actual emergency.
"International networking is very important," Fuerstenhofer told a group of journalists invited to observe the training. "You need to know your colleagues."
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"Our intent is to learn how to work together in an emergency situation," Heppell-Masys said, as members of her team tried to identify and quantify the radioactive substance in a barrel on the ground behind her.
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