Nuclear Emergency Preparedness and Response

Following the nuclear accident in Fukushima on March 2011, the European Union (EU) heads of state and government asked the Commission together with the European Nuclear Safety Regulators’ Group (ENSREG) to carry out stress tests and to review the EU nuclear safety legislation. The process of stress tests conducted from June 2011 to April 2012 focused on safety but did not include the evaluation of off-site Emergency Preparedness & Response (EP&R) provisions in the EU.

EP&R working group

To ensure the effective presence and visibility of Nuclear Transparency Watch (NTW) at national and European level, the network has started practical activities as soon as created, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presence of civil society at national and European levels. The question of nuclear EP&R was a priority issue in the post-Fukushima context and still is today with the war in Ukraine. The contribution of civil society is to play an essential role in off-site management of nuclear emergency and post-emergency. It is therefore an important topic for NTW and an area of strong legitimacy for civil society with potential margins for significant progress.

Objectives of the working group EP&R:

The working group (WG) on EP&R was the first one established within NTW with the aim to:

• Identify key stakes regarding nuclear EP&R from the point of view of civil society,
• Identify main needs for improvements of existing EP&R provisions in Europe at the local, national and European level:
  • concerning the content of EP&R arrangements (exposure standards, intervention levels, zoning, …),
  • concerning the decision-making processes for EP&R in the perspective of the Aarhus convention.
  • Identify strategic opportunities to push forward key changes in EP&R at the local, national and European level.

The main objective is to identify country-specific or site-specific issues on EP&R, including trans-boundary (identified and addressed by national investigations) and EP&R issues of European relevance for the viewpoint of civil society. The WG on EP&R aims at providing concrete conclusions and recommendations at the European and national level following what was produced for the first report of the WG (see more details below).

The WG rely on interactions between:

• National investigations led by EP&R WG members (in cooperation with other civil society organizations) at the national and/or local levels notably through national or regional Aarhus Convention & Nuclear (ACN) roundtables (when appropriate),
• Investigations at the European level (seminar, meetings, hearings, …) by NTW, integrating national views.

The EP&R WG includes activities as inception seminar, methodological and strategic advice, issuing of guidelines for national investigations and participation of NTW members to ACN roundtables. In fact, the methodology of work of the EP&R Working Group was decided from the beginning (see the second meeting in June 2014).

EP&R WG report (2015): one year of investigation.

The working group on EP&R has conducted a one-year investigation of off-site EP&R to present current challenges with regard to nuclear safety from the civil society point of view. This report has been presented on 15 April 2015 at the European Parliament in the presence of several members of the European Parliament (Klaus Buchner, Ana Gomes, Jo Leinen, Michèle Rivasi and Julie Ward).

Whereas the industry claims to be well organized at the European level, this EP&R report gives a different point of view from the civil society and contribute to increase the quality of decision -making on safety. In fact, this NTW report presents a review of EP&R provisions, in the perspective of the main challenges identified in the management of the Fukushima emergency.

The heterogeneity of measures in different countries (like the distribution of iodine tablets, evacuation perimeters and zoning) is a crucial transboundary dimension. Vigilance on nuclear safety will remain a key European issue in the future that transcends borders whatever Member states choices will be made on the energy mix. NTW urges the European Parliament, the European Commission, national governments, regional bodies and municipalities, together with nuclear operators, to provide access to relevant information and to support participation of interested citizens and civil society organisations in the development of better provisions and systematic transboundary arrangements.

Executive summary of the NTW report “Emergency preparedness & Response”

Position Paper of NTW Working Group on Emergency Preparedness & Response (15 pages)

Report of NTW Working Group on Emergency Preparedness & Response (180 pages)

Seminar on public information in EP&R (2016).

EU Member States were required to transpose into national law the 2013 Basic Safety Standards Directive by February 2018. Therefore, on 1^st December seminar was dedicated to the topic of public information (Articles 70 and 71 of the BSS Directive (2013/59/Euratom) and Article 8 of the amended nuclear safety Directive (2014/87/Euratom)) on how to ensure good and effective information to the members of public in the preparatory phase and during the emergency phase (Emergency Preparedness and Response – EP&R). This seminar brought the potential contribution of the Civil Society to ensure an effective and qualitative transposition of the BSS Directive in view of EP&R provisions and gave recommendations on how to engage civil society in this process.

In fact, the Council of the European Union has requested the Commission to organize workshops to facilitate more consistent transposition and implementation of the BSS Directive. This event was an opportunity to share civil society’s experiences and concrete findings to support policy makers and regulators in the process of implementing the directive.

Based on civil society’s experiences and findings and taking account of regulators’ views, the aim of the seminar was to put forward possible concrete solutions and highlight examples of good practice that are being used today within and outside the EU.

Named “Addressing the requirements on public information in EP&R from BSS Directive (Articles 70 and 71)”this seminar was co-organised by the European Commission and NTW.

VIDEOS:

– Azby BROWN, Safecast, Japan
Screening of a video presentation “Innovative tools for emergency response”

“Innovative tools for emergency response” by… par nucleartransparencywatch

– Vincent COVELLO, Director of the Center for Risk Communication, USA
Screening of a video presentation “Emergency communication in USA”

“Emergency communication” by Vincent COVELLO… par nucleartransparencywatch

WITH:

– Ioanna METAXOPOULOU, Head of Unit D2 – DG ENER, European Commission
– Bharat PATEL, Unit D3 – DG ENER, European Commission
– Nadja ZELEZNIK, Chair of Nuclear Transparency Watch
Nadja ZELEZNIK: “Main challenges of public informa on in emergency preparedness in Europe” from Nuclear-Transparency-Watch
– Jan Ole Voß , laywer à Becker Büttner Held, Brussels – Europe
Jan Ole Voß “Civil society analyze of Directives requirements on public informa on” from Nuclear-Transparency-Watch
– Jean-Claude DELALONDE, chairman of ANCCLI, France
Jean-Claude DELALONDE: “Understanding of the popula on in emergency preparedness” from Nuclear-Transparency-Watch
– Jean-Luc LACHAUME, French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), France
– Pr. Gilbert EGGERMONT, the Belgian Health Council, Belgium
Pr. Gilbert EGGERMONT: “Presenta on of the report of the Belgian Health Council on emergency planning “ from Nuclear-Transparency-Watch
– Albena SIMEONOVA, Foundation for Environment and Agriculture (FEA), Bulgaria
Ms simeonova from Nuclear-Transparency-Watch
– Dr. Matthias ZÄHRINGER, Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Germany
Dr. Ma hias ZÄHRINGER: “EP&R and Information – the situation in Germany” from Nuclear-Transparency-Watch
–Tatiana DURANOVA, VUJE, Slovakia
Ta ana DURANOVA:”Stakeholder engagement and dialogue and their role in the improvement of the decision-making process in Slovakia” from Nuclear-Transparency-Watch
– Marie-Lène GAAB, ACRO, France
Marie-Lène GAAB, ACRO, France, ” Citizen involvement in the measurement of radioactivity in the context of Fukushima” from Nuclear-Transparency-Watch

THE FULL PROGRAM:
Download

ACN roundtable on EP&R (2022).

The Aarhus Convention establishes a number of rights of the public with regard to the environment. It provides for a right of access to information on public decisions impacting the environment, a right to participate in environmental decision-making and a right of access to justice should the afore-mentioned rights be denied.The ACN participatory process was initiated in early 2008 by the European Commission Directorate General for Energy (DG ENER) together with NTW. The aim of the ACN process is to investigate the implementation in practice of the Aarhus Convention in the context of nuclear activities. The ACN roundtables involve various partners (national authorities, technical support organisations, operators of nuclear activities, civil society organisations, together with concerned international organisations).« Cross-border Emergency Preparedness & Response to nuclear accidental and post-accidental situations » (EP&R)