The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is a nodal agency in the country to manage man made radiological emergencies in public domain.

In the event of any radiological or nuclear emergency in the public domain, Crisis Management Group (CMG) of DAE co-ordinates between the local authority in the affected area and the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) of the Government of India.

The major nuclear facilities of DAE such as nuclear power stations, have an Exclusion Zone of 1.6 km surrounding the power station. In the Exclusion Zone no habitation is permitted. The entire area is fenced or walled off and defines boundary of the site. Beyond this is the public domain and an area of 16 km radius around the plant site, called the Off Site Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ).

For operation of any nuclear facility, elaborate and comprehensive safety systems are in place. These are overseen by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). As a matter of abundant caution, even some "beyond- design-basis" accidents are postulated for the nuclear power stations. In addition to the emergency response plans in place within the facility to handle local emergencies, response plans have also been drawn up for handling such emergencies in the public domain, which are called as "Off Site Emergencies". These plans – drawn up for each site - which are under the jurisdiction of the local District Administration, cover an area of about 16 km radius around the plant or the Off Site Emergency Planning Zone.

The first three types of emergencies which are foreseen and for which detailed plant specific emergency response plans have been drawn up, are Emergency Standby, Personnel Emergency and Plant Emergency. In all these, consequences of the accident are expected to be limited to the plant facility only. The next type of emergency, which is foreseen, is the Site Emergency, wherein the consequences of an accident are not expected to cross the site boundary, that is, the Exclusion Zone - which means that even under this condition, there is no radiological emergency in the public domain. The last type of emergency, which assumes highly unlikely possibility of radiological releases in the public domain, is the "Off Site Emergency". Detailed response plans have been drawn up even for this hypothetical scenario at each site. The local District Administration, the Crisis Management Group, DAE and the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) get involved in this last type of Emergency.

It is mandatory for NPCIL to have comprehensive and well laid out plans to deal with all the above types of emergencies. Barring the last one, all the others fall within the domain of responsibility of NPCIL. AERB as the Regulatory Authority, approves these plans. It is also mandatory for the NPCIL to periodically test out these plans by way of exercises and drills, and take corrective measures as stipulated by the Safety Committees and AERB. As the first stage of the trigger mechanism, CMG and its resource agencies are automatically alerted even when a Plant or Site Emergency / Exercise takes place.

In accordance with statutory requirements, the local District Administration is responsible for drawing up and testing the Off Site Emergency Plans. NPCIL has coordinated with all the concerned District Administration to enable them to draw up comprehensive Off Site Emergency Plans for each power station. It may be mentioned that AERB does not permit any nuclear power station to be commissioned unless and until, such plans for all types of emergencies are in place well before the commissioning date.

The Off Site Emergency Plans are periodically tested, and all power stations have ensured that this is being done at least once in two years. During these exercises, all the Members and Alternate Members of CMG, the Resource Agencies and Key Officials in Mumbai and Delhi are alerted. In these exercises, the district administration is fully involved, and the reports of the independent observers (from AERB, NPCIL and CMG) are used as a feedback to further improve the Emergency Response System.

Recognising the importance of communications in the handling of any Emergency, Emergency Control Rooms (ECRs) are maintained at Mumbai at two different locations. These are manned and operated on a round-the-clock and on all days of the year and maintain continuous contact with all the critical facilities of DAE. The ECRs are equipped with wireless, telephone, facsimile, VSAT and electronic mail facilities. These are tested practically on a daily basis to ensure their continuous availability. Further, each major site also carries out fortnightly or monthly communication exercises to test all the links in the entire communication chain.

A total of 794 Emergency Excersies (which include 40 Off-site Emergency Excersies) have been conducted upto November 5, 2002. About 180 Communication Excercises are also conducted every year.

As regards transport of nuclear material, mandatory design specifications for the packaging, systems and procedures for handling and transport, are in place, to ensure that there is no release of radioactivity in the public domain in the unlikely event of such an accident. However, even if such an event were to occur, the procedures are such that the ECR at the DAE Secretariat gets an alert, which in turn would immediately activate the CMG.

In the event of any other type of nuclear emergency in the public domain arising from the unauthorized presence or suspected presence of nuclear materials, a booklet giving the essential guidelines to be followed has been circulated amongst State Governments and Union Territories.