70 L . Canet et al .: Radioprotection 2024 , 59 ( 2 ), 69 – 79
challenge . Decision-making during the recovery phase involves balancing technical expertise with the active involvement of stakeholders . It has been demonstrated that addressing the challenges faced by the affected regions requires collaboration and engagement from all stakeholders , providing insights and new perspectives to the local , regional , and national decision-making levels ( Schneider et al ., 2021 ). Economic considerations play a pivotal role in post-incident recovery . Remediation costs , both direct and indirect , can be substantial , as seen with the FDNPP accident cost ( Yasutaka et al ., 2016 ), necessitating a careful and informed risk – benefit evaluation for protective actions ( IAEA , 2023 ). In addition to social and economic aspects , environmental considerations are an important part of the process of healing from a nuclear accident . ( IAEA , 2011 ).
Regarding the multifaceted aspects of recovery , there has been growing interest in achieving sustainable remediation ( Wieder et al ., 2022 ) following radiological events during recovery , particularly in the aftermath of the FDNPP accident . It has had long-term effects on the region ’ s economic , societal , and environmental landscapes . Recognizing the importance of addressing such radiological incidents from a global perspective , international committees have emphasized the need to develop assessment tools and guidelines to evaluate the sustainability aspects of recovery actions ( NEA , 2021 ). Currently , numerous guidelines and recommendations exist at both the international organizational and national institutional levels that address the aftermath and recovery of radiological events . This study was based on the concept of sustainable remediation defined by the United Kingdom ’ s Sustainable Remediation Forum ( SuRF ) and linked to the US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) concept of green remediation . Sustainable and green remediation represent actions with a net benefit to safety and the environment , society and economy , natural resources , and climate change ( NEA , 2016 ).
As the previous comparative study ( Bertho et al ., 2022 ) who compared the different strategies implemented by different countries , this study aimed to determine the focus points of each of these guidelines , the main themes of response actions and recovery planning , and the kind of information that may be lacking from these guidelines in the wake of sustainable remediation ( Social , environmental and economic aspects ) by conducting a qualitative and quantitative analysis of guidelines and recommendations from diverse international and national institutions that pertain to nuclear accident response and recovery .
2 Methodology
The analysis of doctrines regarding nuclear accident recovery has predominantly been confined to accidents that occur at nuclear power plants . To undertake this comparative analysis , a study was conducted to collect nuclear accident management doctrines from European and North American countries that mentioned or were specific to the recovery ( longterm ) phase following nuclear accidents . The construction of the guideline corpus was restricted by the availability of official online documents and language of publication . This limitation aimed to mitigate the potential for misinterpretation arising from translation . The data collection method followed that of a previous comparative study ( Bertho et al ., 2022 ). Thirteen different guidelines were analyzed in this study ( Tab . 1 ). Five were from international institutions and 8 from national institutions .
2.1 . Qualitative analysis
A qualitative analysis was conducted on all previously mentioned documents . The analysis primarily focused on the recovery aspects of the guidelines , excluding chapters on emergency responses and protective actions during the response phase following a nuclear accident . A qualitative approach was considered relevant as it allowed a greater capacity to gain depth and meaning across the guideline corpus .
The analysis aimed to explore the main emphases of each guideline and gain an overall assessment of the recovery process in all combined guidelines . Analysis was performed by systematically reviewing each guideline individually using a step-by-step approach . As the objective was to identify the focal points of each guideline , special attention was paid to paragraphs mentioning sustainable remediation processes : protection of human health , stakeholder involvement in decision-making processes , environmental protection , and economic considerations .
2.2 . Quantitative analysis
The quantitative analysis involved text mining using the open-access software KhCoder . It focused on every aspect of the guidelines . Every chapter , from the response to the recovery actions , was considered ( Tab . S1 ). Chapter and subchapter titles , tables , figures , references , and certain annexes and appendices were excluded from the analysis . To ensure accurate identification and prevent data loss , all capital letters have been converted to lowercase letters .
The relevant text of each guideline was then compiled into a single Excel document for comparative analysis to create a single guideline corpus . The quantitative analysis covered all the thirteen documents except for France ’ s ‘ Recommendations pour la gestion post-accidentelle d ’ un accident nucléaire ( ASN Codirpa , 2022 )’ as the document is written in French . However , the 2012 version , written in English , was included in the analysis . In total , 12 documents were analyzed , adding up to 176,797 words ( Tab . S1 ). Common words , referred to as ‘ stop-words ’, such as ‘ the ’, ‘ and ’ were removed from the analysis using default parameters . Additionally , ‘ e . g .,’, ‘ i . e .,’, ‘ al ’, and ‘ et ’ were added to the stop-word list .
The overall data was analyzed by creating four main themes of interest in link with sustainable development goals : ‘ Environment ’, ‘ Life ’, ‘ Ethics ’, and ‘ Economy ’, along with nine sub-themes : ‘ Economy ’, ‘ Radiological protection principles ’, ‘ Stakeholder involvement ’, ‘ Psychological impact ’, ‘ Food ’, ‘ Health ’, ‘ Land ’, ‘ Waste ’, and ‘ Ecosystems ’. The themes and subthemes ( Tab . 2 ) were created to categories the guidelines for specific topics related to sustainable remediation . The creation of these themes involved preliminary exploratory research on the nouns and adjectives linked to the main themes derived from the guideline corpus . This