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<p>The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) response planning designed to manage incidents
involving dangerous cargo, including nuclear materials, is contained in the ‘The National
Contingency Plan - A Strategic Overview for Responses to Marine Pollution from Shipping
and Offshore Installations (the NCP)’ and other operational response procedures. The
NCP is published on GOV.UK.</p><p> </p><p>Response to vessel incident and pollution
incidents within the maritime environment is for the most part initiated by Her Majesty’s
Coastguard (HMCG), with involvement from MCA Counter Pollution and Salvage (MCA CPS)
and the Secretary of State’s Representative (SOSREP). The timing, nature and extent
of any subsequent response will depend on the nature, scope and scale of the incident
and the risks to the public and the environment. This is equally applicable to incidents
involving nuclear materials, where broad alerting and response protocols exist across
the appropriate UK agencies and organisations.</p><p> </p><p>In the case of incidents
involving vessels, technical support will be sought from ship’s owners, classification
society, naval architects, insurers and salvors. For incidents involving nuclear materials
further specialist support would be required. This will comprise of a range of response
services using the resources of: International Nuclear Services, the Office of Nuclear
Regulation, the Environmental Hazards and Emergencies Department (EHED), the Centre
for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (CRCE) (including the Radiation
Team element of CRCE), the Met Office and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. Other industry
specialists are likely to be engaged by the salvors for vessel firefighting, cargo/source
containment, mitigation, stabilisation, and recovery.</p><p> </p><p>Public Health
England (PHE) have delegated responsibility to lead on UK-wide public health impacts
and response resulting from the release of nuclear materials. PHE will be informed
by potential and/or actual release information as well as forecast drift and exposure
modelling developed by the Met Office, this last supported by EHED and CRCE. Again,
location of the incident, its nature, actual and potential extent, risk to the public
and environment will be considered and will inform the actual response activated.
In response, PHE will engage with Local Government Resilience Fora and their counterparts
within the Devolved Administrations to co-ordinate a coherent national response.</p><p>
</p><p>Her Majesty’s Coastguard will maintain communication with all shipping approaching
or in the vicinity of any incident, informing them of any danger and advise on exclusion
areas and potential re-routing. They will similarly inform any offshore installation
(oil & gas or offshore renewable operation), should they be in the modelled drift
or potential fall-out impact area. They will also inform the UK Hydrographic Office,
who will issue a temporary and/or longer term Notice to Mariners.</p>
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