Exercises held to test the operational arrangements of the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency are called Convention Exercises, or ConvEx for short. Their goal is to evaluate and further improve the international framework for emergency preparedness and response. ConvEx exercises are designed to make essential skills and knowledge available to staff at the IAEA and its Member States, thereby ensuring an effective response to an emergency. They also give all participants, whether from Member States or the IAEA, practical experience and help them understand the emergency preparedness and response procedures.

The ConvEx exercises are prepared at three levels of complexity:

• ConvEx-1 exercises are designed to test emergency communication links with contact points in Member States that need to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and to test the response times of these contact points.
• ConvEx-2 exercises are designed to test specific parts of the international framework for emergency preparedness and response, for example to drill the appropriate use of communication procedures; to practice procedures for international assistance; and to test the arrangements and tools used for assessment and prognosis in a nuclear or radiological emergency.
• ConvEx-3 are full-scale exercises designed to evaluate international emergency response arrangements and capabilities for a severe nuclear or radiological emergency over several days, regardless of its cause.

To assist Member States with the development, maintenance and testing of their emergency preparedness and response arrangements, the IAEA offers a wide range of training courses and workshops. These sessions are targeted at a broad range of professionals and practitioners in the area of nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness and response.