Environmental risk management for radiological accidents: Integrating risk assessment and decision analysis for remediation at different spatial scales

Abstract

The consequences of the Tohuku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in March 2011 caused a loss of power at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Japan, and led to the release of radioactive materials into the environment. Although the full extent of the contamination is not currently known, the highly complex nature of the environmental contamination (radionuclides in water, soil, and agricultural produce) typical of nuclear accidents requires a detailed geospatial analysis of information with the ability to extrapolate across different scales with applications to risk assessment models and decision making support. This article briefly summarizes the approach used to inform risk-based land management and remediation decision making after the Chernobyl, Soviet Ukraine, accident in 1986.

A Hybrid Intelligent Model for Urban Seismic Risk Assessment from the Perspective of Possibility and Vulnerability Based on Particle Swarm Optimization

“…Factors of different scales do not exist independently but are interrelated and influenced and are related to the characteristic boundary of a specific area [30]. is paper constructs a multiscale evaluation system from the three aspects of Hefei's metropolitan area, downtown, and neighborhoods.…”

“…Multiscale nested evaluation indicators and models are constructed from the three scales of Hefei City area, central city area, and block, as well as possibility and vulnerability. e model is based on the existing evaluation path system in the existing disaster science, urban management, computer engineering, and other disciplines [29,30]. It combines the perspectives and advantages of multiple disciplines and is more targeted and adaptable to the complex nonlinearities of earthquakes.…”

Radiation protection issues related to the use of nuclear power

“…Assessing doses and risks during an emergency situation is important but also very difficult. There are considerable uncertainties associated with the transport of radioactive particles and their environmental fate . It is also likely that exposure rates will vary significantly in the early stages of the emergency, with large differences in geographical distribution.…”

“…Risk communication is very difficult in existing exposure situations. It has been argued that poor risk communication contributed to worsen the long‐term psychological, social and political impacts of the Chernobyl accident. Studies have shown significant differences in perception of radiation risks between experts and the public, which can pose impediments for effective communication of risks.…”

Siting military base camps through an MCDA framework

“…Past applications of MCDA frameworks include land use development, transportation studies, site suitability for infrastructure (Hill et al 2005;Hamilton et al 2016;Yatsalo et al 2010), nanotechnology management (Linkov et al 2013;Bates et al 2015;Bates et al 2016), environmental risk management (Yatsalo et al 2011), and humanitarian assistance and relief (Curran et al 2014) with growing acceptance and application over time (Cegan et al 2017b;Kurth et al 2017). Given the success of these applications in informing site suitability decisions based on divergent criteria, we seek to apply similar MCDA methods with a new set of decision criteria related to increasing soldier safety and mission effectiveness through military base camp siting.…”