Risk & Emergency Zoning around Nuclear Power Plants and other Major Hazardous Industrial Installations

Abstract

This paper analyses background and current status of the information basis leading to definition of risk and emergency zones around Nuclear Power Plants in different countries in Europe and beyond. There is a striking contrast in the extent of using probabilistic information to define emergency zones between the nuclear and other high risk industry sectors, such as chemical process industry, and the reasons for these differences are not entirely clear, but seem to be more related to risk perception than actual risk potential. Based on consensus discussions at a recent JRC/OECD International Seminar on Risk & Emergency Zoning around NPPs, recommendations are given in the areas of more comprehensive use of available risk information for risk zoning purposes, risk communication, and comparative energy risk assessment.JRC.F.4-Nuclear design safet