• L Van Bladel and C Vandecasteele.
• Federaal Agentschap voor Nucleaire Controle Ravensteinstraat 36 - B 1000 Brussel.
• Verh. K. Acad. Geneeskd. Belg. 2005 Jan 1;67(5-6):337-40.

AbstractThe first Belgian nuclear emergency plan was drawn up in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident and was primarily aimed at dealing with the consequences of major accidents happening in large nuclear facilities like nuclear power plants. Both the experience during a decade of nuclear emergency exercises and a changing environment with increased menace of malevolent actions by terrorists urged the modification and extension of the initial plan; The latest "Nuclear and radiological emergency plan for the Belgian territory" was published as the Royal Decree of October 17th, 2003. In contrast to what happened in other emergency situations, nuclear and radiological emergencies are, from the moment they are recognised as such and regardless of their (potential) impact, coordinated at the level of the federal authorities. They will gather at the Coordination and Crisis Centre in Brussels. Political decision making will be based both on radiological and socio-economical considerations. The radiological evaluation will take into account on-site observations such as the state and evolution of some crucial technical parameters, meteorological data (observations and forecast) and measured radiological data, where available. Protective measures may be proposed by the radiological experts, but will probably be modified in the light of socio-economical considerations such as the social and/or economical disruption that might arise from fully deploying these proposed measures. The final decision will be taken by political authorities, more particularly the Minister of the Interior. The execution of the decided protective measures will be the responsibility of one or more provinces, who can further delegate to the municipal level and/or to particular services such as the police force, fire department, civil protection, health services and communication experts. The nuclear and radiological emergency plan also deals with some common protective measures such as the installation of a dissuasion perimeter or exclusion zone, the evacuation, sheltering, protection of the food chain, the use of stable iodine and the decontamination from radioactive substances. At least some of the countermeasures ask for -often extensive- preparation in advance, which is generally done in adefined geographical area in the vicinity of a nuclear facility, referred to as "emergency planning zone" for that particular countermeasure and facility. However, the existence of these zones does in no way exclude the application of this countermeasure outside of them. The radiological evaluation is being prepared by introducing "emergency reference levels", for which the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control is responsible. This consists in pre-defining radiation doses which "generally" to "almost invariably" call for the adoption of a given countermeasure. Finally, the nuclear and radiological emergency plan includes stipulations on the required information to the population, on the education and training of (potentially) intervening parties as well as on the minimum requirements for running nuclear emergency exercises.

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