Emergency Response and Crisis Communications

This chapter addresses best practices in emergency response and crisis communication, with an emphasis on the need for procedures and policies, communications systems, networks of trained personnel, and emergency exercise execution and appraisal programs. Indian author R. S. Sundar considers the need for the operators of nuclear power plants to build trust and familiarity with local populations. He uses the challenges of public relations at the Kudankulam Power Plant (KPP) to illustrate his points. U.S. authors Daniela Cooper, Michael Hornish, and Alisa Laufer explain that the U.S. approach to nuclear emergencies stems from a common emergency response structure, the National Response Framework (NRF). They argue that a central challenge of emergency response is establishing who has the authority to request and approve appropriate assistance. They illustrate their points with discussions of the Three Mile Island and Fukushima Daiichi accidents.