Repères - N°48 / March 2021 - The IRSN magazine - 16

*SPECIAL INTERVENTION PLAN

for example, 2 km around power plants.
These plans are now supplemented by the
possibility of immediate evacuation within
a 5 km radius if the rapid releases are longterm, as was the case for Fukushima Daiichi.
The disaster in Japan also showed that the
impact of an accident can extend over
dozens of kilometers. PPIs therefore
increased their perimeter from 10 to 20 km
around the power plant, within which
stable iodine tablets are distributed in
advance (see p. 18) and public awareness
campaigns are carried out. n
1. Steering committee for managing
the post-accident phase of a nuclear accident
or radiological emergency situation/
Comité directeur pour la gestion de la phase
post-accidentelle.
2. Calculation of consequences and mapping.
3. Predictive modeling of future exposure
of the population to ambient radioactivity
in inhabited areas and of food chain
contamination due to radioactive deposits.
4. During precipitation, raindrops carry
away the radioactivity collected during
cloud formation.
Find out more:

National doctrine for nuclear post-accident
management, October 2012
www.french-nuclear-safety.fr => Information =>
News releases => National doctrine for nuclear
post-accident management

WEBMAGAZINE
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Post-accident
management
should
include social
consequences
irsn.fr/R48-EN

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What human
resources to call
upon in extreme
situations?
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Page 16 - Repères No. 48 - March 2021

What is IRSN's role
within the CODIRPA?
The Institute provides
technical information on many
topics. It presents accident
scenarios including release
calculations and dose maps
used as input for reflections
on the post-accident (PA)
doctrine. After Fukushima
Daiichi, it studied a serious
accident scenario with
long-term releases.
IRSN also contributes to
actions carried out in favor
of or in interaction with
local stakeholders.

What are the CODIRPA's
directions?
We need to assess whether
the population protection
doctrine, drawn up in
consideration of releases
from nuclear power plants,
is suitable for other facilities.
For example, plutonium is

less irradiating than radioactive
releases from power plants
but can be highly dangerous
if ingested. Another issue is
releases into aquatic, marine,
or fluvial environments.
At Fukushima Daiichi, there
were releases into the sea and
concerns about their impact.
This is a concern in France,
too, as its power plants are
located on river banks or on
the coast.

What about remediation?
Contaminated soil
management will be dealt
with in more detail.
This involves defining
contamination reduction
strategies and remediation
recommendations for
the public authorities.
This includes managing
the waste produced.
Decontaminating soil,
for example, can involve

removing 10 or 20 centimeters
of topsoil. Depending
on the desired clean-up target
levels, the costs and volumes
of waste generated may
significantly differ.
We assess the pros and
cons of the various options.
It is essential that the
population and elected
representatives be more
involved in these issues.
The resilience of contaminated
areas relies on upstream
preparation and stakeholder
involvement in the decisionmaking process regarding
the measures to be put
in place.

© Noak/Le Bar Floréal/IRSN Media Library

PPI* EXTENDED FROM
10 TO 20 KM AROUND
FRENCH NUCLEAR
POWER PLANTS

3 questions for...
Philippe Dubiau
Executive Director for emergency
preparedness and response

ECONOMY

Cost calculation has improved

L

oss of business, devaluation of
housing, health-related costs, and
contamination remediation expenses,
these are four modules that will be
added to ARPAGON in 2021. This
software program assesses the economic
consequences of a nuclear accident.
It was created in 2012 by the IRSN's
Nuclear Risk Economics Laboratory (LERN).
The feedback from 2011 helped identify
several improvements in methods
and tools for calculating the economic
costs of an accident. The Institute
provides support in the event of an
emergency. Its objective is " to be able
to offer the public authorities, at the end
of the emergency phase, technical
options for managing contaminated areas,
including cost assessments, " explained
Ludivine Pascucci-Cahen, Economist
at IRSN. In addition, the costs of
accidents are compared with the cost
of preventing them.

Another new feature: under the AMORAD
research program (improving models
used to predict dispersion and assess the
impact of radionuclides on the environment)
(see p. 20), ARPAGON will estimate
the losses of forest and aquatic resources.
© Noak/Le Bar Floréal/IRSN Media Library

© Ljcom.net/distribution-iode.com

EMERGENCY

Ludivine Pascucci-Cahen
studies the economic
consequences of accidents.

http://www.Ljcom.net/distribution-iode.com https://www.asn.fr/Prevenir-et-comprendre-l-accident/Gestion-post-accidentelle/Elements-de-doctrine http://www.french-nuclear-safety.fr https://www.asn.fr/Informer/Actualites/L-ASN-publie-les-nouvelles-recommandations-du-Codirpa https://nxt-staging-books.s3.amazonaws.com/abgcomm/reperes/Reperes48_English/src/ER48_14_ArticlesWebmag_CliManche-v09.pdf https://www.irsn.fr/R48-EN https://nxt-staging-books.s3.amazonaws.com/abgcomm/reperes/Reperes48_English/src/ER48_14_ArticlesWebmag_FaisabiliteDesActionsHumaines-V10.pdf https://www.irsn.fr/R48-EN

Repères - N°48 / March 2021 - The IRSN magazine

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