Strategies for restoration of contaminated inhabited areas

This chapter describes the requirements to construct and implement the right countermeasure strategy for restoration of a specific contaminated inhabited area. A few practical examples of clean-up work are given, highlighting some important issues that can be decisive for the success of a strategy in reducing doses in an inhabited area.

The difficult and complex task of decision-making is discussed, describing some of the different types of supporting tools that are currently available to enhance the overview for decision-makers and their advisors. The implementation of countermeasures would need to occur rapidly, and the responsible decision-makers would at that stage have insufficient knowledge of the situation to allow very thorough evaluation of specific advantages and disadvantages of intervention and insufficient time to apply dialogue-based decision instruments.

The countermeasures that may be implemented in this early phase range from issuing simple instructions to the public via various communication channels on protective measures to the logistically and in practice highly challenging measure of evacuating the population of a large area..