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28 March 2024

GCC mulls anti-radiation emergency plan

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By Staff

Gulf oil producers are considering taking joint emergency measures involving the installation of monitoring centres in the region to counter nuclear radiation accidents, a regional official was quoted on Sunday as saying.

A Canadian firm has drafted an anti-nuclear radiation emergency plan, which will be discussed by the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in Vienna this week, said Mohammed Mubarak bin Deenah, Deputy Director of the Supreme Environment Council at the Riyadh-based GCC Secretariat.

The six members, sitting atop 40 per cent of the world’s recoverable oil deposits, considered taking such measures following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan and plans by Iran to build nuclear facilities.

“The Environment Council will meet in Vienna on the sidelines of the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) tomorrow to discuss the plan, which could be approved by member states later,” he told the Saudi Aleqtisadiah daily.

He said the plan, the first collective anti-radiation measure in the Arab world, involves the setting up of radiation monitoring stations in member states—UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.

“It will be similar to the common power grid in the GCC. These stations will monitor radiation levels in the region and in case a GCC country discovers that such levels are above the normal, it will immediately inform the other member states in order to take common action to tackle the problem,” he said.

He said many public and private institutions would be involved in the emergency plan, including the civil defence, the police and the ministry of defence.