Notification Convention

The Convention of Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency deal with aspects of emergency response and preparedness. Both of these Conventions—briefly referred to as the Notification Convention and the Assistance Convention —were adopted within a very short time span of only five months after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. 

The Notification Convention applies in the event of any accident involving facilities or activities of a State Party, or those under its jurisdiction or control, from which a release of radioactive material occurs or is likely to occur, and which has resulted or may result in an international transboundary release that could be of radiological safety significance for another State. A State Party involved in an accident covered by the Convention is obliged to immediately notify, directly or through the IAEA, those States which are or may be physically affected. 

The Early Notification Convention requires signatories to provide immediate information to the IAEA following a civil nuclear incident and voluntarily directly to potentially affected outside states. It specifies the type of information required and further requires signatories to agree to requests for additional information from affected states. The IAEA will also provide monitoring assistance to non-nuclear member states bordering on non-member states with a nuclear power programme. 

However, questions must still remain over the effectiveness of the Conventions and these can only really be answered by the occurrence of an event which triggers their application. The provision of emergency assistance to the Soviet Union, once details of the Chernobyl accident had become established, proceeded fairly smoothly in the absence of any mutual assistance convention—the IAEA agreement will simply codify and marginally extend what has been tested and shown capable already. The effectiveness of the early notification convention is a far more significant consideration, given the experience in the earliest days after the Chernobyl accident. 

Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident (Notification Convention)... 

According to Notification Convention, a state party shall ... 

The IAEA, according to Notification Convention, has to inform states parties, member states, and other states that may be physically affected of a notification received and promptly provide any state party, member state, or relevant international organizations, upon request, with the information. The information to be provided will include the following data as then available to the notifying state party ... 

The Notification Convention also assigns obligations to the IAEA and the states parties that are not for response but for preparedness issues such as the following. 

As of October 9, 2000, there were 86 states parties to the Notification Convention. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are also Parties to the Notification Convention. 

The Board is pleased to note that the number of parties that have already invoked article 12, paragraph 10 (a), of the 1988 Convention, continues to grow. Since the report of the Board for 2003 on the implementation of article 12 was issued, the Government of Egypt has requested to receive preexport notifications for all substances in Table I and acetone, and the request of the European Commission on behalf of the States members of the European Union for pre-export notifications for all substances in Table I of 19 May 2000 has been extended to the 10 new States upon their accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004. 

As at 1 November 2004, 40 countries and two territories had requested such pre-export notifications pursuant to article 12, paragraph 10 (a), of the 1988 Convention. In addition, the European Commission has invoked that article on behalf of all States members of the European Union, bringing the total number of Governments that have made use of that provision (including the 25 States members of the European Union), to 67. Of those, the Governments of... 

Governments that have requested pre-export notifications pursuant to article 12, paragraph 10 (a), of the 1988 Convention... 

Governments may wish to note the possibility of requesting that a pre-export notification for all substances in Table II of the 1988 Convention be sent as well. 

In its 2007 report on the implementation of article 12 of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, the International Narcotics Control Board informs Governments of the notification that the Board has sent to the Secretary-General, to formally initiate the procedures to transfer phenylacetic acid from Table II to Table I of the Convention. The Board believes that the transfer is necessary because existing controls over phenylacetic acid are insufficient to prevent the diversion of the substance from continuing. 

It is always difficult to find a suitable shipping conpany for transporting hazardous waste. They fear problems from environmental groups as well as problems during stopover in a third country. Under the Basel Convention there is an established notification process to inform third countries in advance about the transport of hazardous waste, but some governments do not want foreign waste to pass through their territory. 

Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident 27 Oct. 1986 In 1997, four States (Lebanon, Philippines, Myanmar, and Singapore) agreed to be bound by the Convention. As of May 1998, the Convention had 80 Parties. 

A State Party may denounce this Convention by written notification to the depositary. 

Dietary supplement ingredients were removed from the FDA s food additive regulations in 1994 with the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) creating a more favorable, less onerous process (FDA premarket notification) with the advantage that labels and labeling were permitted to provide statements of nutritional support but, these materials are prohibited from being represented for the use as a conventional food . 

Related to chemical import and export, but somewhat separate from it, is the issue of the transboundary shipment of hazardous wastes. The international law dealing with it is the Basel Convention, which came into force in 1992. One of its guiding principles is that, in order to minimize the threat, hazardous wastes should be dealt with as close to where they are produced as possible. Movements of wastes must comply with a prior written notification by the exporting country to the importing country. Movement documents are required to track the waste from the beginning of its journey to the point of disposal. 

The Board concluded that information was available that might require the transfer of phenylacetic acid from Table II to Table I of the 1988 Convention. Therefore, a corresponding notification containing the information the Board had at its disposal was prepared, in accordance with... 

Governments should, upon receiving that notification, supply all relevant comments and supplementary information that may assist the Board in conducting its final assessment as to whether the substance should be transferred from Table II to Table 1 of the 1988 Convention. 

The system represents a major development in the sending of and responding to pre-export notifications. As the timely submission of pre-export notifications and the provision of the necessary feedback to the exporting country are crucial to prevent diversions of precursors from international trade, the Board encourages all Governments to utilize the new PEN Online system. This is of the utmost importance as, considering the number of notifications provided on a daily basis, the current mode of communication of preexport notifications by facsimile and conventional mail will ultimately be replaced by this faster and more effective system. 

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