Remote expert support of field teams

Strengthening chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) security in the European Union (EU) reduces the threat of and damage from CBRNE incidents. One of the main issues facing the EU security industry is its highly fragmented nature, exhibiting a lack of standardisation and of harmonised certification procedures. The need for standardised information sharing between competent authorities and international bodies regarding radiation measurements and data analysis has been recognised by several experts in response to Commission mandate M/487 for the establishment of European security standards. This report will suggest a way forward to develop protocols for more efficient cooperation between competent authorities and remote expert support or reachback centres at the national and international level. Not all EU Member States have the capabilities to process data provided by nuclear security instruments, and thus should consider instigating a coordinated capability yielding a more efficient and comprehensive approach in responding to future nuclear emergencies. This could be achieved by reachback centres across Europe (built upon existing national facilities and expertise) and would provide analysis services for alarm adjudication. Efficient data sharing and processing across EU Member States requires the use of standard data formats and protocols. The radioactive and nuclear materials (RN) thematic group of the European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (ERNCIP) launched an initiative in 2014 to develop a standard list-mode digital data format for nuclear instrumentation, under the auspices of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Similarly, there is a need to improve standardisation at the data management level, requiring a technical standard for data handling protocols, which may be a non-trivial effort. For spectrometric data, no such protocol has been defined at the international level. The RN thematic group therefore proposes to develop a European standard for data storage protocols on nuclear and radiological data exchange, particularly with regards to reachback.