A cloudy story The statement “the radiation cloud has stopped at the border” left a deep imprint in the minds of the French and even now, more than 35 years later, there is still a feeling of mistrust regarding information concerning nuclear issues. In truth, no minister, scientist or journalist ever stated or wrote that the cloud “stopped at the French border”. Professor Pellerin, responsible for the Government’s communication strategy, had declared “we do not necessarily have the same measurements on either side of the border”, and this relatively ambiguous phrase was misinterpreted. Chernobyl, the ultimate disaster See glossary pages 33 to 36 The purely technical lessons were limited, but the Chernobyl disaster gave rise to the need for information transparency, a safety culture, emergency management preparedness and international concertation. The Convention on Nuclear Safety was adopted internationally Adopted on 17 June 1994 in Vienna, Austria, further to the Chernobyl accident, the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) aims to commit the NPP licensees to maintaining a high level of safety by establishing fundamental safety principles to which the States subscribe. The Convention obliges the parties to submit reports on the implementation of their obligations to a “peer review” during meetings held at the head office of the IAEA. The coordination of the public authorities was improved in France The measures taken to make nuclear safety progress included: an interministerial circular of 19895 organising the coordination of the public authorities in the event of incidents or accidents; the creation of the “Téléray” remote measurements and alert network by the SCPRI (1990); the development of nuclear emergency exercises (1990) and the preventive distribution of iodine tablets (as from 1997) to people living near French nuclear power plants, to prevent thyroid cancers. The PUIs and PPIs were further reinforced and validated by exercises. Highlighting of the need for transparent public communication In 1986, the possibility of an accident of the scale of Chernobyl was inconceivable to both the authorities and the public at large. Valentin Faline, director of the Soviet press agency Novosti, explained at the time that “transparency does not happen overnight. Something very serious has occurred. We had no instructions concerning prevention. Many things were improvised, including in the area of information”. In France, the Government delegated responsibility for communication to Pr. Pellerin, head of the SCPRI. His communication efforts were clumsy and not very effective. Thus, his press release of 30 April did effectively announce the arrival of the first radioactive fallout in France, stating that its level represented no danger whatsoever, but as the May 1 was a public holiday and the French media were not working, the information was not passed on until 2 May and only by a few media. But he never mentioned a “cloud that stopped at the border”. ? How have nuclear safety and radiation protection evolved further to the Chernobyl accident 20 • Les cahiers Histoire de l’ASN • November 2023 5. Circular DGS/PGE/1B No. 1561 of 16 October 1989 concerning information on the administration of stable iodine to the population in the event of a nuclear accident.
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