Nuclear power and the public risk: TMI underscored generic human factors and safety system problems, and challenged the complex art of risk assessment

IEEE Spectrum ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 59-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sugarman
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Human Factors ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Safety System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Risk

Risk assessment

1987 ◽  
Vol 92 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 139-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Gittus ◽  
M. R. Hayns
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Nuclear Power Station ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Reactors ◽  
The Other ◽  
Power Station ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Mathematical Interpretation

SynopsisRisk involves consideration both of the consequences of accidents and the frequency with which the accidents occur. Indeed formally risk is equal to the product of frequency and consequences. The important question of the perception of risk by the public and by the professional is first addressed. Two tenets are proposed as being a suitable summary of the public requirement:1. If it can happen, then it must not matter.2. If it matters, then it must not happen.A mathematical interpretation is placed upon these tenets and is shown to be consistent with various professional safety targets. The tenets do not indicate what numerical values for risk would be acceptable to the public but they do show how the consequences of accidents should diminish as the frequency or likelihood of a particular accident increases. It is argued that the best way of determining what level of risk the public accepts is to be guided by statistics for man-caused accidents. These, it transpires, pose risks which are considerably greater than those implied, for example, by the professional targets for nuclear reactors. The risk posed to the public by two energy installations is summarised. The one installation, situated on Canvey Island, exports energy in the form of gas, some of which (methane) is pumped into a national gas grid. The other installation, the Sizewell “B” Pressurised Water Reactor nuclear power station has not yet been constructed, but a comprehensive risk assessment has been undertaken, the results of which are summarised. The two installations are comparable in the sense that each exports a power of the order of a million kilowatts (in the form of gas in the one case and electricity in the other). Both have been the subject of Public Inquiries. The risks posed by the Canvey installations are accepted, since they only constitute a small fraction of the risks which the public run in any case during the course of their everyday lives. The predicted risks for the PWR are smaller still. The form taken by the risks posed by both installations corresponds broadly with the two tenets. That is to say the greater the consequences the lower should be the frequency of a particular accident.

scholarly journals Public Perceptions of Contentious Risk: The Case of Rubber Granulate in the Netherlands

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 2250
Author(s):  
de Vries ◽  
Claassen ◽  
Mennen ◽  
Timen ◽  
te Wierik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Assessment Report ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Perceptions Of Risk ◽  
New Information ◽  
Public Risk

This paper reports on the perceptions of risk related to practicing sports on fields containing rubber granulate infill, and preferences for mitigation measures, among people with and without offspring exposed to rubber granulate. Two repeated surveys were conducted among members of the general population and parents of children aged under 18, in the middle of a dynamic public discussion about the potential health risks of exposure to rubber granulate. The first survey (N = 1033) was administered in December 2016 at a time characterized by considerable public uncertainty and contrasting opinions in the public risk debate. The second survey (N = 782) was conducted in January 2017 after the publication of a risk assessment report, which concluded that practicing sport on fields containing rubber granulate is safe. Multilevel analyses were performed to study changes in perceptions of risk and mitigation preferences in the time between the two surveys, the influence of being familiar with new information following the risk assessment report, and the differences in the perceptions of risk and mitigation preferences between groups with and without offspring exposed to rubber granulate. The results of this study show that, initially, a substantial proportion of the Dutch public perceived practicing sports on fields containing rubber granulate as a potential health threat to children. Over time, after publication of a new risk assessment study stating that practicing sports on fields containing rubber granulate is safe, perceived risk and preferences for mitigation of this risk decreased, especially among those who were familiar with the new information. Parents of children under the age of 18, in particular those with children who were exposed to rubber granulate, were more likely to perceive the risk as higher and to prefer a stricter mitigation policy. These insights may be important to inform public health communication strategies with respect to the timing and tailoring of risk messages to various groups.

scholarly journals Strengthening the Global Nuclear Safety Regime

Nuclear Law ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Richard Meserve
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Nuclear Safety ◽  
Safety System ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Global Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fukushima Daiichi

AbstractNuclear power is an important component of the global response to climate change. Nuclear power provides continuous electricity and can overcome the intermittency of the renewable energy sources dependent on wind and sun. Assurance of nuclear safety is essential for further expanding nuclear power as a part of the global response to climate change. The commitment to safety must be a universal priority, as the prospects for nuclear power everywhere would be adversely influenced by the public outcry following a serious nuclear event anywhere. The importance of the global nuclear safety regime was revealed by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP. The accident reinforced that in addition to the need to have a competent national nuclear safety system in place, it is ultimately important to have an international system that ensures that the relevant national institutions diligently and effectively fulfil their roles. This chapter examines the current global nuclear safety regime and suggests improvements, including through safety inspection, greater transparency measures, increased harmonization of standards, and others.

Public Perception of Nuclear Power Risk in China and Methods to Improve Public Acceptance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Shen ◽  
Mingye Liu
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Influencing Factor ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Risk ◽  
Perception Process

At present, the most influencing factor on nuclear power’s development in China the public’s attitude and acceptance. This paper studies the public perception of nuclear power risk in China, and provides several feasible methods to improve the quality and effectiveness of public perception level. Therefore, the public acceptance of nuclear power can be ameliorated greatly, which will help the development of nuclear power industry. For decades, the environment pollution has become one of the most serious and urgent problems in China. Since nuclear power has been proved to be a type of low-carbon and environment-friendly energy, striving to develop nuclear power is a good solution to China’s environment issues. However, by the end of 2015, China’s nuclear power’s electricity production share was only 3.03%, which was far below the average level of developed countries. This situation might be partly due to technical and economic reasons, but the essential cause of the restricted development of nuclear power in China is the public perception of nuclear power risk is far from objective and comprehensive, which leads to the public acceptance of nuclear power is not as high as expected. This paper states that public perception process of nuclear power risk is a dynamic, complex and closed system, which consists of the risk, the transformation of the risk and related information (both truth and rumors), the public perception process and public’s acceptance of the risk, and the public’s actions after receiving the information. The public’s actions often react on the risk perception. Nuclear power risk, unfortunately, is usually magnified, and it makes people become more frightened and oppose nuclear power more seriously. In order to solve those issues, in this paper, the public risk perception’s characteristics and external influencing factors are studied, a model describes the public perception process of nuclear power risk is developed and analyzed, and the causes of current acceptance level of nuclear power (which is relatively low) are explained. In addition, based on this model, methods to conduct effective risk communication and public education on nuclear power are provided, the future of nuclear power in China can be much better.

scholarly journals Public Risk Perception of Nuclear Power in Serbia: Fear of Exposure to Radiation vs. Social Benefits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir M. Cvetković ◽  
Adem Öcal ◽  
Yuliya Lyamzina ◽  
Eric K. Noji ◽  
Goran Milošević ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Japanese People ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Square ◽  
Energy Needs ◽  
Public Risk ◽  
Almost All

<p>Nuclear power (NP) remains one of the choices for increasing environmental and social concerns related to energy needs due to its relatively low level of emissions. At the other hand, serious problems can arise as a result of potential accidents. For example, the nuclear power plant (NPP) crisis in Fukushima Daichi (2011) has caused a great deal of concern not only for the Japanese people, but also for the world. Today, the consequences of this occasion continue in EU countries. However, Serbia does not have an NP plant on its own, it has about 15 NP stations around it. The Serbian Government, therefore, wanted to know what the majority of its people think about nuclear energy (NE) and possible consistency. The objective of this paper is to present the results of the Serbian population assessment of the NP risk perception of the trial. A series of 270 face-to-face interviews took place in the public square of Belgrade in March 2019. A logistic regression analysis was used to examine the cumulative effects of the different risk factors. As a key result, it was found that almost all respondents did not support the construction of the NP in Serbia. In addition, this research identified several important variables that have a significant impact on the perception of the public risk of NP.</p>

scholarly journals Public Risk Perception of Nuclear Power in Serbia: Fear of Exposure to Radiation vs. Social Benefits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir M. Cvetković ◽  
Adem Öcal ◽  
Yuliya Lyamzina ◽  
Eric K. Noji ◽  
Goran Milošević ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Japanese People ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Square ◽  
Energy Needs ◽  
Public Risk ◽  
Almost All

<p>Nuclear power (NP) remains one of the choices for increasing environmental and social concerns related to energy needs due to its relatively low level of emissions. At the other hand, serious problems can arise as a result of potential accidents. For example, the nuclear power plant (NPP) crisis in Fukushima Daichi (2011) has caused a great deal of concern not only for the Japanese people, but also for the world. Today, the consequences of this occasion continue in EU countries. However, Serbia does not have an NP plant on its own, it has about 15 NP stations around it. The Serbian Government, therefore, wanted to know what the majority of its people think about nuclear energy (NE) and possible consistency. The objective of this paper is to present the results of the Serbian population assessment of the NP risk perception of the trial. A series of 270 face-to-face interviews took place in the public square of Belgrade in March 2019. A logistic regression analysis was used to examine the cumulative effects of the different risk factors. As a key result, it was found that almost all respondents did not support the construction of the NP in Serbia. In addition, this research identified several important variables that have a significant impact on the perception of the public risk of NP.</p>

Human reliability in non-destructive inspections of nuclear power plant components: modeling and analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2B) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanderley Vasconcelos ◽  
Wellington Antonio Soares ◽  
Raissa Oliveira Marques ◽  
Silvério Ferreira Silva Jr ◽  
Amanda Laureano Raso
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Human Factors ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Failure Modes ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Human Reliability ◽  
Non Destructive ◽  
Plant Components

Non-destructive inspection (NDI) is one of the key elements in ensuring quality of engineering systems and their safe use. This inspection is a very complex task, during which the inspectors have to rely on their sensory, perceptual, cognitive, and motor skills. It requires high vigilance once it is often carried out on large components, over a long period of time, and in hostile environments and restriction of workplace. A successful NDI requires careful planning, choice of appropriate NDI methods and inspection procedures, as well as qualified and trained inspection personnel. A failure of NDI to detect critical defects in safety-related components of nuclear power plants, for instance, may lead to catastrophic consequences for workers, public and environment. Therefore, ensuring that NDI is reliable and capable of detecting all critical defects is of utmost importance. Despite increased use of automation in NDI, human inspectors, and thus human factors, still play an important role in NDI reliability. Human reliability is the probability of humans conducting specific tasks with satisfactory performance. Many techniques are suitable for modeling and analyzing human reliability in NDI of nuclear power plant components, such as FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) and THERP (Technique for Human Error Rate Prediction). An example by using qualitative and quantitative assessesments with these two techniques to improve typical NDI of pipe segments of a core cooling system of a nuclear power plant, through acting on human factors issues, is presented.

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