Current trends in communicating safe transport of radioactive materials

The World Nuclear Transport Institute (WNTI) has now over fifteen years of experience in communicating the safe transport of radioactive materials. During this period of time, communication tools have evolved greatly. While originally communication was almost only paperbased, it is now heavily dependent on electronic tools and gadgets. These tools have permanently modified the way people communicate nowadays, using for instance a Facebook message to instantly broadcast information to “friends” or a Twitter account to broadcast a message to “followers”, while the same information would have been hard to disseminate otherwise in a short period of time. At the same time, the environment in which the transport industry operates has changed – from a reduction in nuclear power generation to the “Nuclear Renaissance” and then to a post-Fukushima period. Also, while safety was the main concern, the security of transport seems to attract interest from our stakeholders. Throughout the years, our communication has had to evolve to best answer questions from the general public. The IAEA, as well as the industry, have worked hard to understand the lessons learnt from the communication during the Fukushima accident. While not related to transport, the communication during the Fukushima accident can allow us to learn some lessons which could apply to transport operations. While the safety record for the transport of radioactive materials spans over 50 years, we cannot take it for granted. The communication strategy for our industry, preparing for the eventuality of an accident, needs to reflect these lessons learnt. This paper will review the evolution of the communication of the safe transport of radioactive materials, around the world, and the current trends in the industry on communicating the safe transport of radioactive materials in routine operation as well as in the eventuality of an accident, highlighting some good practices in our industry.