Article

Experience in Spain with local-national fora for better post-accident preparedness

¹ Nuclear Engineering Department, Technical University of Madrid (UPM), C/ José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
² Environmental Department, CIEMAT, Av. Complutense, 40, 28040 Madrid, Spain.

Abstract

In recent years, in the framework of the European Research projects EURANOS, NERIS-TP and more recently PREPARE, CIEMAT and UPM have been working together in close collaboration with the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) of Spain to develop a coherent framework for post-accident rehabilitation by involving national, regional and local stakeholders. The framework was tested in preparedness exercises organized in 2007 and 2013. The aim is the development of appropriate protection strategies as part of the consequence management and the transition to recovery. Different issues were the focus of the exercises, such as management of contamination in water, inhabited areas and agricultural areas, rehabilitation of livelihood and production, and communication issues. The main lesson from the exercises is that forums are the key mechanism for successful interaction and feedback along the chain local − regional − national levels. Using scenarios built on realistic assumptions is of great help. Decision support systems facilitate identifying the main challenges, functions to fulfil and management alternatives, in the search for the best management strategies.