Course and Field exercise on radiological risks for first responders: Country: Albania

In coordination with the General Directorate of Fire and Rescue Services of the Albanian Ministry of the Interior, a refresher course and field exercise was organized for first responders and forensic experts on radiological risks from 5 – 7 October 2021 in Albania. Both the course and the field exercise were very successful: the participants showed a lot of interest during the course and the field exercise enabled the participating teams to become more familiar with each other's objectives in the field. There were 9 participants for the course and 27 for the exercise. In the course a refresher was given on radiation protection, PPE, measurements and SOPs. The subject of the field exercise was carrying out border checks, in particular searching vehicles for radioactive sources and rescuing victims. For the course, all participants rated its content the highest and 89% said they had acquired new knowledge. For the field exercise, 71% of the participants rated the content the highest (29% rated 'good') and 76% said they had acquired new knowledge.