Examination of a graded response strategy in emergency planning and preparedness

NRC Emergency Planning regulations, which were significantly upgraded in 1980 continue to be a source of some controversy. This may arise in part from the misperception of uniform accident risk within the plume exposure Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ). Since promulgation of the regulations, additional risk studies have been performed showing significant spatial variation in risk over the EPZ, which implies that phased or graded planning and responses, implicitly recognized in the documents which formed the basis for the present regulations, may be a reasonable strategy. The present study was initiated to investigate this. An objective of the present study was to ascertain a protective action strategy capable of dealing with a wide spectrum of accidents. Such a strategy should be flexible, depending on the nature of the accident, and should provide a priority ranking of desired actions, rather than a pre-selected fixed risk objective, or dose criterion, regardless of accident severity. The priorities, in order, should be to avoid early fatalities, reduce early injuries, and reduce other health effects