Factors affecting the assessment of off-state consequences of nuclear power

Although the main basis for the safety of nuclear power is provided by various technical safety systems and procedural efforts to prevent accidents or to minimize any releases of radioactive substances into the environment, there is, however, a need to be able to predict the nature and extent of off-site consequence of accident situations. Furthermore, probabilistic safety assessments include as a final (level 3) the assessment of health and economic impact of different accident sequences in order to express the results in a more illustrative manner. The consequence assessment requires as an input different characteristics of the source term based on the results of preceding assessment phase. The prediction of consequences involves the analysis of atmospheric dispersion, radiation exposure via different pathways, calculation of health and economic impacts. In addition, the effectiveness of various countermeasures, such as evacuation, relocation, food banning etc., should be evaluated to support the planning of emergency preparedness