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
18 June 2012 Yoshinori Moriyama Deputy Director-General for Nuclear Accident Measures NISA, Japan

Contents

1. NISAs Experiences from the Response to the Accident 2. How did the People and Media Judge NISA's Public Relations? 3. NISAs Future Efforts and Approaches Based on Experiences 4. Conclusions

1-1. NISA's Experiences from the Response to the Accident

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

Extremely difficult situation for public relations

1-2 Public relations by NISA(1)

NISAs core public relations = press briefings for journalists
Public relations changed according to the progress of the accident

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.

NISAs first and biggest difficulties were inabilities to gather information and make necessary contacts.

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.
(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.

NISA's spokesperson and a decision maker in different places was a big problem.

1-4 Public relations by NISA (3)

Why couldnt the decision maker and the persons in charge of public relations share information adequately?

Institutional design without consideration of a complex disaster

1-5 Improvement of response to media (after April 25)

(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. Information provision and the explanation were comprehensively implemented for various topics.

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) NISAs 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

(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) However, NISA was unable to provide information sufficiently due to limitations of gathering information at the initial stage of the accident.
- 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.

Highly appreciate for IAEA initiatives!

2 How did People and Media Judge NISA's Public Relations?

Implementation of questionnaire survey for NISAs public relations activity

As a result...
(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 NISAs 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.

3-1 How to improve the approaches of NISAs public relations? Public relations is a keystone for crisis management in the emergency.
It is important to reconsider and to improve the crisis management framework.

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.

3-2 How to improve the approaches of NISAs public relations? Joint Press Conference in the Government-TEPCO Integrated Response Office is a good practice.
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.

3-3 How to improve the approaches of NISAs public relations? 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. PAZ 5km EPZ 8-10km UPZ 30km

Nuclear Power Plant

EPZ: Emergency Planning Zone PAZ: Precautionary Action Zone UPZ: Urgent Protective Action Planning Zone

3-4 How to improve the approaches of NISAs 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 NISAs public relations?

(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. (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.

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