The Impact of Fukushima on Evacuation Preparedness in Case of Nuclear Disaster in Slovenia

Krško Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) located in Slovenia has met expectations about safety and stability of operation so far. Stress tests conducted by the EU a few months after Fukushima disaster in 132 NPPs in 14 EU member states proved that KNPP was one of the safest installations. However modern technology brings inherent risks therefore failures and accidents are in some way inevitable or even “normal”. The nuclear disaster in Fukushima proved that this can happen in one of the most developed countries in the world. There is no reason to assume that such disaster could not occur elsewhere including KNPP.

Drawing on results of the survey among inhabitants and interviews with the highest representatives of institutions and companies conducted in a 3-kilometre radius around KNPP, the paper seeks to establish the level of preparedness of population, institutions and companies for the evacuation in case of disaster in KNPP. The analysis reveals that despite communication efforts made by the authorities almost three quarters of the population in the potentially most threatened area are not familiar with the locations of reception centres assigned to them in case of disaster, whereas two thirds of them do not know the evacuation routes. The level of preparedness of institutions and companies is also rather low due to fatalistic attitude, and poor nuclear disaster planning, training and coordination. These facts suggest that crisis management actors, including Slovenian military, would face extremely demanding situation in case of nuclear disaster similar to one in Fukushima. The role of the military will be especially scrutinized in this context taking into account previous experiences of military’s involvement in disaster management.