Nuclear Facility Emergency Management: Effective Implementation of Training, Drills, and Exercises

The continuous availability of affordable and sustainable energy is the essence of modern economies, not only in the developed countries, but also in developing countries. However, nuclear power also has considerable public health and safety hazards that create emergency situations that must be responded to urgently and effectively. It is necessary that every player in the nuclear industry implements effective training, drills, and exercises to ensure emergency preparedness and response in line with the federal requirements. The normalization process theory was applied in this qualitative, single case study to address the key factors needed for effective training, drills, and exercises in nuclear facilities. The guiding questions for this study related to understanding the experiences of first responders and staffs at nuclear facilities; implementation problems experienced; strategies used in the implementation; and the impact of training, drill, and exercise programs in sustainability issues. The participants were 13 employees of a nuclear power plant in the southeastern United States who had worked at the facility for at least 6 months. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews and coded using NVivo before being thematically analyzed. The key finding was that there is a need to review the emergency preparedness policy and plans to meet the threshold of real emergencies. The implications of the findings for positive social change are that they demonstrate the need to review the existing policies, training, drill, and exercise programs, which will, in turn, help the organization to meet the threshold