Use of New Media for Emergency Communication by Nuclear Emergency Management Authorities: An Application to Nuclear Emergencies

In this research we studied how new media would be used in nuclear emergency communication by nuclear emergency management authorities (RQ), specifically focussed on external communication and the interaction with the population in emergencies and applied to Belgium and the Netherlands. By studying lessons learned in other sectors through scientific literature, documentation, and by conducting interviews we found that new media is utilized similar in nuclear emergencies as in other emergencies, but that the specific risk perception of nuclear emergencies requires an adapted approach. This allowed us to apply new media emergency communication procedures we observed from non-nuclear cases to our data. To conclude, we found that politicians with a strong local network (e.g. mayor) should enforce emergency authorities’ messages by sharing them and thus increasing the reach and credibility of the authorities. New tools and social media can be adopted to improve the emergency communication in the future. This should however be approached cautiously and preparedness remains advised. Implementations of these new tools in nuclear emergency communication could be subject to future research.