It will therefore be necessary for the Royal Hong Kong Police to prepare a Standing Order detailing the actions to be taken to meet their commitments within the overall Contingency Plan. This section delineates the responsibilities of the police within the emergency organisation, but does not attempt to define the detailed organisational arrangements which will be needed, such as deployment of manpower, which depend on departmental decisions.
Summary of Police Responsibilities
In the event of a release of radioactivity affecting, or threatening, Hong Kong, decisions concerning the appropriate response will be taken by the Emergency Controller in the Civil Control Centre (CCC). The police will be required to deploy their resources to carry out the following duties:
(i)
Assistance in Deployment of Emergency Personnel
Assistance may be required in the deployment of emergency personnel. In some circumstances, key staff manning the CCC and the Monitoring and Assessment Centre (MAC) may have difficulty in reaching their posts due to traffic congestion. Arrangements should be made for the police to assist in overcoming such problems. It is suggested that all emergency personnel should be issued with passes and car-windscreen stickers recognised by the police so that their movement may be expedited. All such personnel should also be provided with telephone numbers which they can call for police assistance if they are hampered in any way.
(ii)
Police Support for Monitoring Operations
During the first few hours after notification of an incident at Daya Bay it would be essential that monitoring and sampling teams could reach their areas of operation and move freely, and that samples could be transferred rapidly to the King's Park Radiation Laboratory or other laboratories. In some circumstances, monitoring and sampling teams would require police support to ensure suitable conditions to carry out their work. Although monitoring teams will have their own radio-communications with the MAC at the Royal Observatory, arrangements should be made for the police to provide backup communications in case of difficulty.
The scale of such support will depend on circumstances, however, it is advised that the necessary communication arrangements between the MAC and the Royal Hong Kong Police should be defined in Standing Orders and tested at least annually.
(iii) Police Support for Control of Foodstuffs and Agricultural Produce
The Agriculture and Fisheries Department will be responsible for monitoring and sampling (in conjunction with the Royal Observatory) and controlling, within its jurisdiction, local produce, and consignments of imported produce at the point of entry, as will be discussed in Section 12.3. The Municipal Services Branch will be responsible for checking, again within its jurisdiction, foodstuffs both at the import stage and at the point of sale. Both these organisations could require support from the police in carrying out monitoring and sampling operations, and in controlling any interdiction on consignments of food prior to disposal. The Royal Hong Kong Police should discuss with these organisations the scale of support that they would be likely to require.
These operations could last for a number of weeks following an accident, but their urgency over the first few hours of an incident would not be very great.
(iv)
Implementation of Sheltering of the Public
The implications of sheltering the public as a countermeasure are discussed in Chapter 9. In the highly unlikely
77
Page 195Page 196
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.