Back الأمن والسلامة النووية Arabic Ядрена безопасност Bulgarian Sicherheit der Kernenergie German Seguridad nuclear Spanish امنیت و ایمنی هسته‌ای Persian Ydinturvallisuus Finnish Sûreté nucléaire French नाभिकीय सुरक्षा Hindi Sicurezza nucleare Italian Polokego ya Nyuklea NSO

Nuclear safety and security

A clean-up crew working to remove radioactive contamination after the Three Mile Island accident.

Nuclear safety is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "The achievement of proper operating conditions, prevention of accidents or mitigation of accident consequences, resulting in protection of workers, the public and the environment from undue radiation hazards". The IAEA defines nuclear security as "The prevention and detection of and response to, theft, sabotage, unauthorized access, illegal transfer or other malicious acts involving nuclear materials, other radioactive substances or their associated facilities".[1]

This covers nuclear power plants and all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power, industry, and military uses.

The nuclear power industry has improved the safety and performance of reactors, and has proposed new and safer reactor designs. However, a perfect safety cannot be guaranteed. Potential sources of problems include human errors and external events that have a greater impact than anticipated: the designers of reactors at Fukushima in Japan did not anticipate that a tsunami generated by an earthquake would disable the backup systems which were supposed to stabilize the reactor after the earthquake.[2][3][4][5] Catastrophic scenarios involving terrorist attacks, war, insider sabotage, and cyberattacks are also conceivable.

Nuclear weapon safety, as well as the safety of military research involving nuclear materials, is generally handled by agencies different from those that oversee civilian safety, for various reasons, including secrecy.[6] There are ongoing concerns about terrorist groups acquiring nuclear bomb-making material.[7]

  1. ^ IAEA safety Glossary – Version 2.0 September 2006
  2. ^ Phillip Lipscy, Kenji Kushida, and Trevor Incerti. 2013. "The Fukushima Disaster and Japan's Nuclear Plant Vulnerability in Comparative Perspective Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine." Environmental Science and Technology 47 (May), 6082–6088.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hugh Gusterson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Diaz Maurin, François (26 March 2011). "Fukushima: Consequences of Systemic Problems in Nuclear Plant Design". Economic & Political Weekly. 46 (13): 10–12. Archived from the original on 11 August 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  5. ^ Adam Piore (June 2011). "Nuclear energy: Planning for the Black Swan p.32". Scientific American. Retrieved 2014-05-15.
  6. ^ Force V: The history of Britain's airborne deterrent, by Andrew Brookes. Jane's Publishing Co Ltd; First Edition 1 Jan. 1982, ISBN 0710602383, p.101.
  7. ^ "Nuclear Terrorism: Frequently Asked Questions". Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. September 26, 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

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