Equity and MCDA in the Event of a Nuclear Accident

Decision making on countermeasures in the event of a nuclear accident such as Chernobyl is complex. Many criteria are involved. Aside from obvious ones related to the direct effects of radiation, there are issues relating to psychological stress, public acceptability and the need to consider the longer term economics of the affected regions. Thus there are many ways in which multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) can provide insights and support to the decision makers. Decisions on countermeasures will be made, at least initially, in the face of considerable uncertainty and the interplay between equity and uncertainty in the evaluation of different countermeasure strategies is far from straightforward. Apparently reasonable approaches, which appear to treat different population groups equitably, can, on closer examination, have unreasonable effects. The paper describes the MCDA components in relation to equity judgements of a decision support system (RODOS) for such emergencies being built by a consortium of institutes within the European Union, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.