What we need to know ...and when. Educating the public about nuclear terrorist risks can help raise levels of security

Nuclear power infrastructures could be the target of terrorist acts of theft, sabotage, unauthorized access or other malicious acts given their radiological and chemical content and potential for building weapons. Attacks on its major components, including fuel production, reactors, waste handling, and reprocessing facilities, would lead to serious consequences-even if there is little or no damage to a nuclear power plant itself and other related structures. Public fear of nuclear radiation, in combination with a possibly massive resultant blackout and other aggravating factors, could create significant distress and panic. In other words, successful terrorist attempts to attack nuclear power infrastructure can easily bring about systemic disaster. Systemic risks impact society on a large scale and their effects may spread much further from the original hazardous source. Those risks widely affect systems that society depends on, such as health, transport, environment, telecommunications. Their consequences may be technical, social, environmental, psychological and economic and involve different stakeholders. In this context, however, one important stakeholder has been under-appreciated, under-utilized and somewhat misunderstood: the general public. The nuclear power infrastructure must learn how to efficiently communicate to the public and develop better options for public risk communication that relate to deliberate attacks or accidents. The public is also a challenging stockholder because citizens are deeply split regarding the acceptability and value of nuclear power generation and tend to express their feelings emotionally. However, there is growing recognition that because of skyrocketing oil prices and evidence of the greenhouse effect, nuclear power may be approaching renaissance. Hence, the public must no longer be looked upon only as potential victims or panicked masses but rather as an important contributing factor for better nuclear security throughout all stages of a possible incident. Risk perception and stages in risk communication like public information sharing, public outreach and public involvement are discussed. By getting the public on-board and recognizing it as an important stakeholder, a meaningful risk communication strategy can achieve four interrelated missions: (a) reach a common risk assessment enabling the public to be educated and prepared, (b) encourage a well-informed and well-motivated public to contribute to a healthy nuclear security culture, (c) build up public vigilance, persuading citizens to cooperate more closely with law enforcement, and (d) reduce the immediate and long-term physical and psychological impact of a terrorist incident. Ultimately, it all comes down to creating a more resilient and prepared population in the face of terrorist adversaries. Resilience is usually defined as the ability to handle disruptive challenges, characterized as emergencies that can lead to or result in crisis