Principle 3 of the INSAG document on NPP siting described in Section 18.3 addresses the study of the feasibility of an emergency plan in the site selected. Emergency planning, the last barrier to protect the health and safety of the population, has a considerable relevance. In the IAEA safety guide already quoted (IAEA, 2002b) the site-related aspects of nuclear emergencies are introduced: ‘There should be no adverse site conditions which could hinder the sheltering or evacuation of the population in the region or the ingress or egress of external services needed to deal with an emergency.’ Sheltering in people’s own houses is the most elementary way to protect people; to make sheltering effective some basic procedures have to be put in place. Electricity and sufficient water and food should be avail­able; special population groups such as residents in hospitals and prisons will also demand special services.

Poorly developed transport and communications networks or the pres­ence of industrial activities may impair the rapid and free movement of people and vehicles in case of evacuation to safer places. Such places should be defined and be prepared beforehand, with alternatives in case they also become contaminated. In case evacuation routes have to pass close to the affected plant new routes have to be open. The Chernobyl-4 and Fukushima-1 accidents have demonstrated the need for permanent or prolonged dis­placement, a situation that needs government attention. The cited IAEA safety guide includes the following list of items to be considered for an efficient emergency plan:

• Population density and distribution in the region

• Distance of the site from population centres

• Special groups of the population who are difficult to evacuate or shelter, such as people in hospitals or prisons, or nomadic groups

• Particular geographical features such as islands, mountains and rivers

• Characteristics of local transport and communications networks

• Industrial facilities which may entail potentially hazardous activities

• Agricultural activities that are sensitive to possible discharges of radionuclides

• Possible concurrent external events.

The last item has particular interest. Evacuation may have to be conducted under heavy fog or snowfall or concurrent with other major natural phe­nomena such as an earthquake and tsunami as in the case of the 2011 Fukushima event.

The IAEA has developed a series of requirements and safety guides on emergency planning. A requirements document (IAEA, 2002c) addresses the logistic support and facilities needed as well as the training drills and exercises which should be conducted on a periodic basis. These require­ments are further developed in a safety guide (IAEA, 2007b) in which Appendix VIII describes the conditions that emergency facilities and loca­tions should comply with.