Examining the effectiveness of initial responsetraining program for nuclear emergencypreparedness

Background: although nuclear technology has various beneficial, it also has avariety of risks. in particular, initial response is very import to respond to risks.therefore, the program to increase initial response proficiency can beregarded as very essential. the republic of korea annually conducts morethan 10 nuclear emergency response training programs, and specializedtraining courses for initial response are conducted twice several times a year.materials and methods: the participants of the initial response trainingprogram were evaluated by senior professionals who had over 10 years ofexperience. the disaster paradigm developed by the national disaster lifesupport program was used as an index for evaluation. the purpose ofevaluation was to identify issues in the current training program throughevaluation results over a period of three years. the difference-in-differencesmethod was used to quantitatively analyze the evaluation results. results:five indicators of the disaster paradigm demonstrated that personnel skillsimproved through training. however, three indicators showed that skill levelsdecreased despite continued training. conclusion: according to the results,the treatment of radioactive waste (t), evacuation (e), and triage of radiationexposure (r) indicators showed a decrease in the proficiency level, whichwere difficult to demonstrate in the real world because of the specificity ofradiation. accordingly, program contents corresponding to t, e, and rindicators must be revised using tools that can accurately portray thespecificity of radiation.