Supporting people building their own response to the consequences of a nuclear accident: complexity management, trust and the Aarhus Convention

PREPARE work package on “Information and participation of the public” has investigated the conditions and means for pertinent, reliable and trustworthy information to be made available to the public in due time and according to its needs in the course of nuclear emergency and post-emergency contexts. These works addressed three different issues: experts-to-expert interactions in an emergency and post-emergency situation, information and participation of local populations affected by a post-accident situation, and communication with traditional and social media in nuclear or radiological emergencies. These three directions of work shared common perspectives and hypotheses. The first one was the specific perspective on information and participation of the public of the Aarhus Convention (1998), according to which information and participation of he public is required in order for affected people to take action in order “to take measures to prevent or mitigate harm arising from the threat”. The second common conceptual basis is the acknowledgement of the complexity of a post-accident situation and the non-linear character of the system of information and action in such situations, which integrated a wide diversity of actors and of information providers. Finally, following Niklas Luhman's works, trust is addressed as a tool to address complexity

Managing the complexity of societal needs in a nuclear emergency situation: towards further experts collaboration for the “enlightened protection” of populations

Expert-to-expert interactions in an emergency and post-emergency situation could be a somehow underrated, nevertheless crucial factor to meet the conditions and means for relevant and trustworthy information of the public. Improvement could therefore come through a better shared understanding by experts of their various positions, competencies, and roles – a mapping of which appears to be a useful tool for building this understanding, through improvement of trust and respect of diversity within the broad variety of experts involved, and through more intense, diversified and regular networking practices. Although they cannot be expected to form a consistent social group, experts understand they are sharing a joint responsibility, tied to their collective social function of bridging the complexity of a nuclear emergency and post-emergency situation with the complexity of societal needs arising from that situation. This should drive them to improved and reinforced collaboration under the shared objective of contributing to the “enlightened protection” of populations

Conditions and means for a useful and trustworthy engagement of experts in the PREPARE analytical platform – survey and interviews outcomes

The PREPARE analytical platform (AP) has been developed under the framework of the European project PREPARE (PREPARE. “Innovative integrated tools and platforms for radiological emergency preparedness and post-accident response in Europe”, EC FP7-EURATOM-FISSION GA 323287. http://www.prepare-eu.or

The EURANOS cooperative framework for preparedness and management strategies of the long-term consequences of a radiological event

Experience following the Chernobyl accident in the CIS and the EU has clearly demonstrated that policies and strategies for long-term management of extensive contaminated areas must give due importance to social, cultural, ethical, environmental, economic and political factors beyond the sole radiological protection and health perspective. What is at stake in the long-term response to such a situation is the sustainable rehabilitation of living conditions in affected territories, in a context in which each person can actively contribute to his own protection. Preparing or developing rehabilitation of living conditions in a territory affected by long-lasting radioactive contamination is a broader issue of governance as it must address all affected dimensions and articulate the actions of the various concerned actors at the local, regional and national level. To respond to this challenge, a specific research project was implemented by Mutadis, CEPN, NRPA and AgroParisTech from April 2004 to June 2009 in the framework of the EURANOS integrated programme. The overall objective of this project was “to develop a strategic and methodological framework that can inform or assist national authorities in Europe in establishing arrangements for the long-term management and the sustainable rehabilitation of living conditions in extensive areas that may be contaminated as a result of an accident or malevolent act involving radioactive material”. The proposed framework describes a two-steps method allowing national and local authorities together with key stakeholders to establish arrangements and preparation strategies in the perspective of long-term management of a radiological event. It may also be used to develop rehabilitation strategies in countries affected by long-lasting radioactive contamination. This framework aims to set up favourable conditions for stakeholders (in particular local communities) to engage effectively and sustainably in the cooperative development of post-accident preparation or management strategies. The first step of the method aims to frame the issue and identify conditions for stakeholders to engage in rehabilitation preparedness or management strategies. The second step aims to develop a local-national cooperation platform gathering local and national, private and public actors to develop together preparation or management strategies

Local populations facing long-term consequences of nuclear accidents: lessons learnt from Chernobyl and Fukushima

After a large-scale nuclear accident, local populations face a high level of complexity, as their day-to-day life is seriously disrupted by the short and long term consequences of the event. Affected populations face numerous decisions related to their daily life and trade-offs in order to cope with a whole range of unfamiliar issues associated with the long-lasting radioactive contamination. This includes the choice to leave, stay or return in the contaminated zone. Feedback of the Chernobyl and Fukushima post-accident situations in Norway and Japan based on the results of the PREPARE European research project brings insights on the complexity of nuclear post-accident situations in modern democracies involving long-lasting contamination. The main goal of the project was to evaluate how and to what extent local populations can access reliable information to protect themselves and participate to collective decisions, as foreseen in the terms of the Aarhus Convention (1998) on public information & participation of the UNECE (United Economic Commission for Europe). After an accident, individuals and families, professionals, local communities, public authorities and experts have various response paths that are frequently conflicting. An analysis of the societal mechanisms was performed to identify the interactions of the different paths, the role of values in these social mechanisms as well as the impact of public policies on the resilience and social cohesion of local communities and on their capacity to build their own recovery strategies. It demonstrates the importance of a holistic approach that includes all the societal dimensions of the responses to post-accident situations. The capacity of local actors to build their response to the crisis depends on their capacity to build new forms of cooperation among themselves and with other actors and relevant networks

Social, ethical and communication aspects of uncertainty management

The European project CONFIDENCE identified, conceptualised and addressed social uncertainties through a multi-method research approach. The research highlighted the uncertainties faced by publics, emergency management actors and decision-makers in nuclear emergencies and during the recovery phase. It showed that nuclear emergency management is dominated by decisions under uncertainties, that non-experts face also different uncertainties than experts, that emergency plans need a (continuous) reality check and that sound communication, openness and transparency about uncertainties may contribute to better decisions. It also suggests that national emergency response and recovery policies should consider and support the capacity of local actors to deal with an emergency or post-accident situation, for instance by carrying out their own measurements. This way, social uncertainties can be addressed and in some situations reduced, and the communication improved