7 Feb (NucNet): The French government has published a plan for dealing with major nuclear and radiological accidents, covering emergencies both inside and outside France that call for a response from the state at national level.
Work on the national plan began following the March 2011 nuclear accident at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan, with the government saying it wanted to “draw all lessons” from the accident both to strengthen prevention and to respond more effectively to any major nuclear or radiological incident.
The plan details how any emergency response should be organised. The circumstances the plan deals with include how to protect the public during the initial “uncertain” phase of an incident, how to deal with a domestic nuclear accident involving radioactive emissions, and accidents outside France such as Chernobyl and Fukushima-Daiichi, which might result in controls on imports.
The plan was drawn up under the auspices of the secretary of defence with input from organisations including the French nuclear safety authority ASN (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire), the Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire; IRSN), Areva and EDF.
The government said the plan complements existing emergency measures. It covers serious accidents outside France the possibility of transportation accidents involving radioactive material, including accidents at sea.
The plan also examines ways of dealing with the economic impact of an accident. Last year, IRSN said in a report that a nuclear accident similar to the one at Fukushima-Daiichi would cost France more than 400 billion euros (about 542 billion US dollars), or 20 percent of its economic output,
The report said a major disaster damaging one of France’s 58 commercial nuclear reactors and contaminating the environment with radioactive material would displace an estimated 100,000 people, destroy crops and create massive power outages.
The plan is online (in French only):
www.risques.gouv.fr//sites/default/files/upload/sgdsn_parties1et2_270114.pdf
