Principles, practises and developmental needs of emergency exercises in Finland

Emergency exercises are important in maintaining and developing preparedness for emergencies which could have devastating consequences. In the nuclear domain, they are executed at least annually with several participating organisations, followed by evaluation performed by participants of the exercise. Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority in Finland (STUK) has a special role in the exercises as it both plans and participates in exercises but also evaluates the plant personnel performance and the exercise report provided by the plant. The development of emergency preparedness in a nuclear power plant partly depends on the above mentioned (i) evaluation and also on (ii) plant personnel's initiatives noticed during plant's daily routines, (iii) STUK's inspections and (iv) global events such as Fukushima. The most critical challenge in the emergency exercises is the currently lacking detailed objective, reflected in, e.g., unsystematic evaluation.