Nuclear Accidents

3Research for the Future

3.1. Introduction: safety and the main types of accidents

Safety is divided into two areas: prevention, which consists of avoiding the accident, and mitigation, which aims to reduce the consequences of an accident when it occurs despite prevention efforts. In the nuclear field, safety efforts focus on three areas: on the design of nuclear power plants and other nuclear equipment, on their operation, and on training the people who will control the nuclear installations [REU 02]. This vision is still valid today.

In the nuclear field, prevention is based on defense in depth. It requires high quality in the design and construction of the nuclear installation. It is also necessary to have protection systems and backup systems that in the event of failure can restore the installation to normal operation. The installation must be equipped with emergency procedures, i.e. back-up systems that take over from conventional systems in the event of a malfunction.

Mitigation is based on crisis command posts, pre-established action plans, the possibility of distributing iodine tablets in the event of a nuclear accident and evacuation plans for populations regularly tested by crisis exercises. The effectiveness of prevention and mitigation depends above all on the operators’ “safety culture” [REU 15].

3.1.1. Safety history

In the United States since 1975, it has been clear that it is imperative to separate the controller from the auditor. As a result, USAEC (United ...