Learning from emergency exercises through systematic debriefing

In Finnish nuclear power plants, annual emergency exercises are organized with other organizations. After the exercise the participants of the plant personnel are provided with a brief feedback and various stakeholders evaluate the exercise. Nuclear power plant also provides an evaluation about the exercise from the perspective of the plant’s development needs and the related activities to the Finnish nuclear regulator (Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority). This way the preparedness of the plant is improved but a lot of potential also remains unused. Especially, the learning of the plant personnel having participated in the exercise is not supported as well as possible. The chapter describes how systematic debriefing, designed for emergency exercises, utilizing the experiences, conceptions, and ideas of the exercise participants, can be done. This way all development ideas can be gathered, development needs can be identified and the best choices for handling the emergency exercise scenario in question will be defined.