The International Nuclear and radiological Event Scale( INES) was developed in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency( IAEA) as a response to the Chornobyl accident. It is a worldwide tool for communicating to the public, in a consistent way, the safety significance of nuclear and radiation events from a range of activities, including industrial and medical use of radiation sources, operations at nuclear facilities and transport of radioactive material. It rates them on a scale of 0 – 7 from minor incidents to major accidents. Levels 1 – 3 are called " incidents " and Levels 4 – 7 " accidents ". Events without safety significance are called“ deviations” and are classified Below Scale / Level 0. The scale is designed so that the severity of an event is about ten times greater for each increase in level on the scale.

INES classifies accidents and incidents by considering three areas of impact:

• People and the environment

• Radiological barriers and control

• Defence-in-depth

It has become the world-wide scale for putting into proper perspective the safety significance of nuclear and radiation events. Example past events( including some before the scale was created) are given below.

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