Critical issues in emergency planning for nuclear power plant accidents

Abstract

Accidents at Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) are perhaps the most alarming situations for both
the public and emergency services. Nuclear accidents provide us with an opportunity to learn
from the experience in order to improve the disaster response system and prevent new
tragedies. Experience from past disasters clearly shows that nuclear emergencies can lead to
relatively low levels of exposure, but at the same time can cause conflicting reactions among
population that are almost impossible to control. We did a review of past NPP accidents
including the Three Mile Island (TMI), the Chernobyl, and the Fukushima accidents, to analyze
public’s evacuation behavior in nuclear accidents and found that absence of people’s
preparedness to radiological emergency was the main indicator of uncontrolled evacuation. It
is therefore necessary to increase knowledge about radiation and convey to people how to
choose the right protective measures and effectively control an emergency. To do this, it is
important to include special pre-accident programs in the preparation plans and rely on them
during a real emergency. We believe that the implementation of such a multidisciplinary
concept including engineering emergency planning along with the social aspects, can
significantly improve the existing emergency plans. This paper provides policymakers with
valuable recommendations to address gaps in terms of nuclear disaster preparedness and
assistance.