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Local Population Facing Long Term Consequences of

Nuclear Accidents:

Lessons Learnt from Fukushima & Chernobyl

March 22nd 2016 – European Parliament, Brussels

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Authors

Inger-Margarethe Eikelmann (Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority)

Gilles Hériard Dubreuil (Mutadis, NERIS)

Stéphane Baudé (Mutadis, NERIS)

David Boilley (ACRO)

Hiroshi Suzuki (Fukushima University)

Takehiko Murayama (Tokyo Institute of Technology)

Thierry Schneider (CEPN, NERIS)

Julien Dewoghélaëre (Mutadis, NERIS)

Yves Marignac (WISE Paris)

Julie Hazemann (EnerWebWatch)

Kenji Nanba (Fukushima University)

Hideyuki Mori (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies)

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Nuclear Accidents impact all aspects of Daily Life

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Local populations confronted with severe dilemmas:

Evacuating or staying in a contaminated environment both drastically disrupt daily life and is source of sorrow

Difficult trade-offs between protecting life against radiation and life constraints (housing, work, food supply,…)

Complexity means that problems are intermingled and cannot be dealt with separately

Local people experiment loss of control on their own life

Upper levels of decisions are expected to bring support, information, expertise and means, but distrust is spreading…

Local population have to build trustworthy and reliable information, in order to build relevant action ?

Many decisions and actions stay in the hands of local actors.

Local actors facing complexity

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Several levels of decision interacting

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Conventional public policies can hardly address complex and intermingled issues that people are confronted with

Public authorities can provoke adverse effects like spreading distrust and damaging social bonds.

Experts have to deal with uncertainties and multi-dimensional issues that go beyond their own field of expertise

Professionals and business face difficulty when seeking for restoring sustainable operating conditions in the post-accident context

Other actors also confronted with complexity

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Transition paths interacting

Transition paths

Steps, intermediary objectives, rendez-vous pointsNo return to normality

Persons or families

 Local community

 Professionals

Public authorities

Experts

 

Transition paths

Transition paths

 

Transition paths

 

Transition paths

 

Accident

Exchanges between actors

Transition paths

Construction of common good (iterative process)

 

 

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Projects of life, future of families and communities at the core of local concerns.

Beyond health protection or economical viability, rebuilding life involves regaining autonomy and dignity.

For each actor, and for the whole system of actors, recovery is a transition process in which personal, social and collective resources are needed

Social bonds are to be preserved (or restored) in order to create conditions for recovery at personal, family and community levels.

Societal cohesion is based on values such as : dignity, truth, honesty, justice, equity, solidarity, democracy

Rebuilding “a life that worth to live” ?

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Nuclear accidents have long term & severe consequences for inhabitants of the territories affected by radioactive contamination

All aspects of life affected at personal and community levels, there is no return to normality, people experiment loss of control and sorrow

Conventional public policies and social coordination do not cope with the complex situations and challenges created by long term contamination

Rebuilding “a life that is worth to live” is a challenge

It involves social processes of recovery where local actors and communities regain autonomy and capacities, rebuild social bonds

Public policies and upper levels of action have to support (but can conversely hinder) those processes

Societal awareness of what is a nuclear accident with long term contamination is a key stake for preparing European Societies

However “preparedness” cannot be understood in the usual meaning of “organising return to normality”,

Some conclusions…