To improve the ability of China’s nuclear emergency response and organized management, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC)’s General Hospital and France’s Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) jointly undertook training on improvements in nuclear emergency medical treatment on Feb 14, and released a productive practice in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

The project focused on improving the clinical treatment of radiological damage, mainly those which enhance China’s ability in discerning and treating those exposed to radiation or nuclear emergency patients.

It was approved by the International Nuclear Safety Center of the European Commission and China’s Ministry of Commerce, and was supported by China Atomic Energy Agency, and fully sponsored by the European Union (EU).

The project started in 2016 and was divided into two periods. During the first period, 14 specialists from France formed a team to train Chinese staff, and in turn, the EU selected six trainees from China to go to France for a five-week training course during the second period. All the trainees will be chosen as potential members of the expert squad of the national nuclear emergency medical rescue service.

CNNC’s General Hospital is renowned as a training base, a rescue squad, and rescue tech-supporting sub-center of China’s nuclear emergency medical rescue service.

The hospital has succeeded in treating dozens of patients exposed to radiation, including exposed staff during the incident of missing iridium-192 radiographic source in Nanjing on May 7, 2014, and in systematic follow-up medical visits to those injured.

During the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident, it also treated two Japanese tourists detected with high levels of radioactive contamination throughout their external and internal bodies.