Radiological and nuclear terrorism: within the framework of a re-thought planning system, specific tools are complementary to the general purpose instrument

Since 2001, France engaged in the revision of its emergency planning system in order to improve its answer to a major crisis in the field of civil defence and protection. On one side, the Vigipirate, which deals with vigilance and prevention and the response plan of the Pirate family, and particularly Piratom, which is intended to answer the radiological or nuclear terrorist events, are specific and up-to-date tools to deal with the issues of hyper-terrorism. On the other side, the new ORSEC system, the last evolution of one of the main pillars of the global public protection against risks and threats of all kinds, provides the modern methods of emergency planning which allow to consider in the most pragmatic way the response to the risks and threats of our modern world. This coherent planning system establishes the general framework for the action of the responders including medical resources. (author)