Although nuclear plants are designed to ensure that accidents affecting the public are highly unlikely, it is prudent to have plans to deal with them. Accidents have occurred, notably at Windscale (UK) in 1957, Three Mile Island (USA) in 1979 and Chernobyl (USSR) in 1986. Satellites containing radioactive materials have crashed to earth, as in Canada in 1978, while transport and military activities can lead to accidents, as can industrial and medical uses of radiation.

When radioactive materials are released in an accident, people can be affected in the following ways:

• through breathing
• direct radiation from radioactive materials carried in the air and deposited on surfaces
• ingestion (eating and drinking food and water containing radioactive materials)

Take the following action to reduce the effect:

Sheltering

Staying inside, with doors and windows closed, provides short-term protection from breathing in radioactive material in the air. It also gives protection from direct radiation from radioactive material in the air and on the ground.

Evacuation

Evacuation avoids relatively high, short-term exposure, by removing people from the affected area. As with other island communities, evacuation is unlikely to be an option for Jersey in these circumstances.

Stable iodine

Iodine collects in the thyroid gland. If it is appropriate taking stable (non-radioactive) iodine tablets prevents this happening with radioactive iodine released in reactor accidents. Taking stable iodine is combined with sheltering or evacuation.

Food

Radioactive material deposited on soil or grass, finds its way into food through crops and animals. It might be necessary to ban milk or other foods containing too much radioactive material.

Detection and monitoring

Radioactive material in an area can be measured in various ways, and there are a number of organisations and people with the specialist knowledge, skills and equipment to monitor these measurements.

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