Verhandelingen - Koninklijke Academie voor Geneeskunde van België
-
The 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. ⋯ 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.