Analysis of the impact of features of radiation accidents on crisis risk communication

Abstract

In the event of radiation accidents and incidents related to a possible threat to public health, one of the tools for forming health-saving behavior of the population, ensuring the social acceptability of protective measures and reducing social tension is crisis communication. Nuclear and radiation emergencies associated with the potential for radioactive contamination of large areas or the impact on the population can become the basis for the emergence of resonant information events. Properly organized crisis communication with the population in such situations is one of the necessary conditions for the effectiveness of emergency response. The article analyzes the impact on crisis risk communication of some features of nuclear and radiation events that have occurred in recent years. These events have had a significant impact on the possibility or impossibility of following the general principles of crisis communication, and provides examples of recommendations for adjusting information work if it is impossible to strictly follow the general principles of crisis communication in real circumstances. The study made it possible to identify the following features of the development of specific crisis situations that influenced the course of crisis communication and created a number of difficulties: 1) the latent nature of the early phase of the accident; 2) absence or deliberate concealment of information about a radiation accident; 3) the transboundary nature of the accident; 4) hidden (secret) nature of information about the accident; 5) an increase in the level of radiation anxiety among the population of the territories not affected by the accident; 6) the rapid formation and spread of myths; 7) projecting artistic images on a real accident. The analysis of the influence of the features of radiation accidents and incidents on the crisis communication allowed us to come to the following conclusions: 1) crisis communication is an important component of emergency response, affecting both the psychoemotional state of the population and the effectiveness of emergency measures related to the actions or inaction of the population; 2) the development of means of information interaction and methods of dissemination and consumption of information requires a revision of traditional methods of information work with the population; 3) the information should be timely, objective, consistent and understandable both for the public and for non-specialists in the field of radiation hygiene responsible for making management decisions; 4) information should not be presented in the form of short messages without explanations; 5) contradictory aggressive information received by the population from different sources may cause distrust of official sources of information; 6) if you do not provide up-to-date and objective information about the accident, the public’s trust is very easy to lose and very difficult to restore.

Keywords

• chernobyl npp accident
• radiation accident
• risk communication
• population
• risk perception
• crisis communication
• radiation anxiety