MCDA stakeholder workshops

Within the CONFIDENCE project, comprehensive methods have been developed for better support of decision making under uncertain conditions, mainly by use of Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). While MCDA in general was available for use in the radiological crisis management community, no method of analysing uncertain conditions and supporting robust decision making under these conditions was available. During the CONFIDENCE project, the existing MCDA tool was improved and enhanced to deal with these requirements. For providing solid and reliable decision support for such a situation as a radiological emergency, the evaluation of decision-support tools by the stakeholders and their feedback is important, especially when considering their heterogeneous background caused by e.g. living in different countries. Therefore, several stakeholder panels in different countries were organized to include the end users’ opinions and to assure the usability of the final tool

CONFIDENCE: project description and main results

The project CONFIDENCE (COping with uNcertainties For Improved modelling and DEcision making in Nuclear emergenCiEs) performed research on identifying and reducing uncertainties in the release and post-release phases of an emergency. The project started in January 2017 as part of the European Joint Programme CONCERT. It brought together 31 partners from 18 countries and involved members of five European Radiation Protection Platforms namely ALLIANCE, EURADOS, MELODI, NERIS and SHARE. The work program included research on early phase modelling and monitoring considering weather, source term and monitoring uncertainties. Consideration of social, ethical and communication aspects was a key part of our activities. This comprised strategy development in the transition phase together with stakeholder interaction, understanding of the population and which uncertainties are relevant for decision-making. Finally, formal decision aiding techniques were investigated and tested

CONFIDENCE: achievements and way forward

The project CONFIDENCE (COping with uNcertainties For Improved modelling and DEcision making in Nuclear emergenCiEs) final dissemination event attracted 88 participants to review and discuss the project results and provide ideas for future research work. The workshop highlighted progress in understanding uncertainties in all phases of an emergency. It was also demonstrated that consideration of uncertainties are important when developing countermeasure strategies. Stakeholder engagement as well as societal and ethical aspects in decision making have to be considered. Formal decision making tools were improved and tested. In addition, CONFIDENCE participants, representatives of international organisations and end users, provided their ideas on research needs and the way forward

CONFIDENCE dissemination meeting: summary on the scenario-based workshop

The CONFIDENCE dissemination workshop “Coping with uncertainties for improved modelling and decision making in nuclear emergencies” was held in December 2–5, 2019 (Bratislava, Slovak Republic). About 90 scientists and decision makers attended the workshop. The dissemination workshop allowed the presentation of the CONFIDENCE project results, demonstration of the applicability of the developed methods and tools in interactive discussion sessions and the collection of feedback from the participants. The results were disseminated not only in the form of presentations and posters but also through interactive workshops where all participants were involved in round table working groups. A fictive accidental release scenario taking place at a nuclear power plant was developed and used by each work package in the workshop to provide the basis for interactive sessions and discussions

Stakeholder engagement and involvement in nuclear emergency preparedness – the Slovak Republic’s experience in RODOS tool-driven workshops

The facilitated workshops driven by exercise scenarios using decision support tools customised to national conditions have proven to be efficient, with a focus on possible real problems and finding real solutions. The stakeholders of the Slovak Republic actively entered the post-accident preparedness process with the objective “to increase the coherence and effectiveness of nuclear and radiological emergency management in Europe, including the rehabilitation of contaminated areas through the establishment of an effective working platform of emergency management institutions, research institutes, end-users and other stakeholders for initiating application-oriented improvements of methods, procedures, guidelines and information tools”. After the experience within the EVATECH Project, there was a clear statement from all stakeholders that facilitated workshops and work in such multidisciplinary and multilateral groups are challenging, yet rewarding for them. As was seen later on in the process, this type of work was very successful, efficient, and made an essential basis for future activities in post-accident preparedness process development and for building networks and trust between partners within the Slovak Republic and within Europe in the EC projects

Operational procedures of analytical platform

The PREPARE analytical platform (AP) has been developed under the framework of the European project PREPARE (“Innovative integrated tools and platforms for radiological emergency preparedness and post-accident response in Europe”, EC FP7-EURATOM-FISSION GA 323287. http://www.prepare-eu.or