Post on 25-Oct-2014
description
18 June 2012
Yoshinori Moriyama
Deputy Director-General for Nuclear Accident Measures
NISA, Japan
Nuclear and Industrial Safety
Agency Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry
International Experts’ Meeting on
Enhancing Transparency and
Communication Effectiveness in
the event of a Nuclear or
Radiological Emergency
Lessons Learned from the Accident at
TEPCO 's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear
Power Station and Measures for
Improvements Concerning Public Relations
1. NISA’s Experiences from the Response to
the Accident
2. How did the People and Media Judge
NISA's Public Relations?
3. NISA’s Future Efforts and Approaches
Based on Experiences
4. Conclusions
Contents
1-1. NISA's Experiences from the Response to the Accident
Extremely difficult situation for public relations
The Fukushima Nuclear Accident is a complex disaster.
(1) The operator's and the government's insufficient
preparedness for a complex disaster
(2) Need to cope with an earthquake, a tsunami and a
nuclear accident at the same time.
(3) Prolonged unavailability of infrastructure over a large
region (electricity, telecommunications and traffic)
Exceptionally difficult situations to gather
information and to communicate
(4) Resource allocation problems
1-2 Public relations by NISA(1)
Immediately after the accident (March 11)
- The first briefing after 30 minutes of the earthquake
occurrence
- 15 briefings within 24 hours
Need to quickly understand plant status and draw up
prospects for the future.
Unavailability of information about plant status due to SBO.
Unavailability of normal communication network.
NISA’s first and biggest difficulties were inabilities to
gather information and make necessary contacts.
NISA’s core public relations = press briefings for journalists Public relations changed according to the progress of the accident
1-3 Public relations by NISA(2)
One week from the second day (March 12 and later)
Press briefings were held 2 or 3 times a day.
NISA's
spokesperson
and a decision
maker in
different
places was a
big problem.
(1) Occurrence of hydrogen explosions.
Suspicions about the capability to cool the
spent fuel pools.
- Raised concerns
- Strong interest in the prospects for
the settlement of the accident
(2) Need for accurately understanding the
radioactive contamination among the
residents evacuated.
(3) Not working sufficiently to effect sharing
information between decision makers and
the secretariat of the Nuclear Emergency
Response Headquarters.
1-4 Public relations by NISA (3)
Institutional design without consideration of a complex disaster
Why couldn’t the decision maker and the persons in charge of
public relations share information adequately?
1-5 Improvement of response to media (after April 25)
Information provision and the explanation were
comprehensively implemented
for various topics.
(1) Joint press conferences at the head office of TEPCO,
held by the government and TEPCO
- Heavy attendance of major newspapers, TV
stations, freelance journalists and Internet media.
- Conferences lasted several hours.
- Information provision and Q&A there and then.
(2) Briefings by NISA were also held at NISA in the same
way as the joint press conferences with the same
briefer.
1-6 Improvement of response to media (after April 25)
Need to respond to inquiries from the general public
and residents in affected areas
(1) NISA's response to inquiries from the general
public by telephone, around the clock.
(2) NISA’s briefings for local residents
(3) Setting up of a "One-stop consultation contact"
at Local Nuclear Emergency Headquarters.
1-7 Provision of information to international community
Highly appreciate
for IAEA initiatives!
However, NISA was unable to provide
information sufficiently due to
limitations of gathering information at
the initial stage of the accident.
(1) Notified the international
community immediately on the
basis of the Convention on Early
Notification of a Nuclear Accident.
(2) More than 90 briefings for
diplomatic corps in Tokyo
(until December 2011)
(3) 70 press conferences
for foreign media
(until December 2011)
- Staffs from the
secretariat of the IAEA
were dispatched to the
ERC of NISA to
collaborate with us, and
very quickly to help us
provide information.
- The IAEA fact-finding
team led by Dr. Mike
Weightman was also
highly evaluated as
objective information
source.
2 How did People and Media Judge NISA's Public Relations?
Implementation of questionnaire survey
for NISA’s public relations activity
(1) There was doubt that NISA was proactive enough to
disclose information to the public..
(2) NISA was unable to sufficiently respond to the needs
of information receivers.
(3) There was some inadequacy in the organization and
methods of NISA’s briefings.
(4) There were criticisms saying that information
dissemination from NISA was slow compared to that
of real time news media such as TV or the internet.
(5) It was pointed out that information provision in
English tended to be slow.
As a result...
It is necessary to thoroughly reinforce communication
mechanism in case of emergencies. Improvement of the
structure for obtaining information is also needed.
(1) Enhancement of the use of satellite communication, etc. that is
not affected by disasters.
(2) Introduction of video conferencing systems among operators,
the Prime Minister's Office and the regulatory authority.
(3) Dispatch of highly skilled staff from the regulatory authority to
respond to an accident in the operator's emergency operation
center.
Public relations is a keystone
for crisis management in the emergency.
It is important to reconsider and to improve
the crisis management framework.
3-1 How to improve the approaches of NISA’s public relations?
3-2 How to improve the approaches of NISA’s public relations?
It is necessary that the persons in charge of the press
response and the persons responsible for decision making
are in the same place as much as possible.
(1) Consolidation of activities responding
to the media in the case of a major
accident at the prime minister's office.
(2) Holding briefings by the nuclear
regulatory body, following a press
conference at the ministerial level.
Joint Press Conference in
the Government-TEPCO Integrated
Response Office is a good practice.
3-3 How to improve the approaches of NISA’s public relations?
* Nuclear Power Plant
* PAZ 5km
UPZ 30km
EPZ 8-10km
Need to improve the ways to communicate with
local municipalities and residents
As for the local response in the case of an
emergency, a PAZ (5 km) and UPZ (30km) will
replace the EPZ (8 to 10 km) that had been in
use before.
(1) Expansion of the applicable regions, increase
of numbers of the local authorities, and draft
new emergency preparedness plans.
(2) Improvement of communication with local
authorities and residents during normal times.
(3) Further efforts to make people understand the
emergency preparedness measures also
during normal times. EPZ: Emergency Planning Zone
PAZ: Precautionary Action Zone
UPZ: Urgent Protective Action Planning Zone
3-4 How to improve the approaches of NISA’s public relations?
NISA's organization for public relations activity was weak.
- Improvements of the organization and enhancement of
the human resources
- Upgrade of response capability of spokespersons
- Retaining spokespersons for international public
relations
- Enhancement of support systems for spokespersons in
emergencies
- Retaining a dedicated team for analysis and evaluation
of the accident. This team will provide information
appropriately to the emergency response team and the
public relations team.
3-5 How to improve the approaches of NISA’s public relations?
(3) New media tools
- The role of new media based on the
internet is growing. (Twitter, Facebook
and the like.)
- Response to these media and their use
are challenges.
(1) In order to provide the information in a timely
and appropriate manner, prior preparation of
materials is needed, for easily understandable
explanations.
(2) It is necessary to improve communication
with local authorities and residents even at
normal times.
4 Conclusions
(1) A recurrence of accidents like this time must be
prevented by all means. However, in case such an
accident unfortunately happens, public communication is
a key to prevent confusion and ensure the safety of
people, as well as to recover the confidence in nuclear
safety.
(2) Most of the people never imagine nuclear disasters and
the consequences. Therefore, NISA should prepare
materials for easily understandable explanations which
can be used in the emergency.
Public relations is a keystone
for crisis management
in the emergency.
Thank you for your attention