The need for information and the implication of different segments of society after a disaster is an important issue to address, since people have many different information needs and different degrees of scientific literacy. Exposed populations need to know where and when they can receive assistance or answers to their questions, the primary question being “will they be alright living where they are?”. On the other hand, decision makers can use this information when evaluating the needs of the population and in addition they need information regarding the degree of relevance of the potentially implemented systems to manage the consequences of the accident.

In the early phase, there is an important and very diverse need for information exchange about:

• Radiation contamination levels, areas of exposure, behaviours to decrease exposure risk, and the health consequences of radiation exposure;
• Social issues, such as where to meet families, access medical care and social facilities;
• Actions taken and planned, such as evacuation zones and routes;
• The benefits and organisation of providing personalised information for census-taking.

In the long term, there will be a need for exchange of information on local contamination, food contamination, health monitoring results, local decisions particularly in relation to lifting of evacuation orders and return of populations to their homes.

Objective: The objective of this WP is to engage stakeholders (in particular representatives of local populations, teachers, medical personnel as well as local and national authorities) to identify their needs in the immediate and long-term phases of an accident and propose a tool (or framework for a tool) using new information technologies to optimize interactions between technical capacities offered by the applications, citizens and expert resources.

Approach: This will require the following actions:

Task 1.1. Stakeholder meeting and consultation to identify unmet needs

Building on previous experience acquired along the SHAMISEN project, we will:

• Identify relevant stakeholders for the purpose of SHAMISEN-SINGS;
• Launch an online consultation process via the development of the most adequate platforms (blogs, online discussions);
• Collect information about the needs of residents/evacuees using interview data from narrative experience in the Fukushima accident;
• Organize a meeting with key stakeholders (including actors involved in Fukushima citizen participation activities).

 Some of the issues that are relevant to the development of the APPs or tools and that will be discussed with the stakeholders are:

• Possible gathering of personal continuous measurements of ambient radioactivity and inputting in cartographies (WP2), allowing (if methodologically reliable and relevant) cumulative doses assessment, comparisons of results, time and space monitoring of results.
• Possibilities with GPS of space-time budget monitoring and localisation
• Possibilities for bottom up gathering of concerns and issues for experts or management teams, and adapted answers for exposed persons from chatbot or expert teams
• Possibilities for top down personally adapted radioprotection or social issues recommendations
• Possibilities of voluntary registering information and data from exposed persons (time-space budget, daily intake of fresh local vegetable or milk or relevant food staff, contact data, time of stable iodine tablet consumption... ) and keeping them in protected databases for possible future exposure assessment and health/epidemiological monitoring .
• Possibilities of quick training on radiological issues or stress management issues.
• Possibilities of health measures (peritraumatic reactions intensity, stress, depression)
• Possibilities for alerting in case of any health problem (e.g. medical pills shortage ..)

Task 1.2. Focus group assessment of proposals (from WP2 and WP3) by stakeholders

A focus group meeting will be held in the second half of the project’s life to present and discuss the deliverables of WP2 and WP3 (requirements and specificities for dose measurement APPs and devices, and for health and well-being monitoring) in to determine if they correspond to the needs specified during task 1.1. An important issue to take into consideration is whether these APPs or tools are accepted by different age groups and cultures, or whether different approaches are needed for different populations. Advice will be provided on this. Another important issue is whether they are cheap to produce and easy to use.

Task 1.3 SHAMISEN-SINGS Consensus Workshop (Lead NMBU)

A two-day consensus workshop will be arranged in Oslo to address the societal, ethical and technical challenges with APP development and use, as well as its contribution to Citizen Science. This will have a multidisciplinary international participation, including ethicists, social scientists and philosophers as well as representatives of affected populations (Norway, Fukushima). The aim will be to stimulate co-reflexion between social scientists, natural scientists and publics. During the conference, work will aim at discussing issues, and drafting areas of consensus (as well as disensus and reasons therefore). A publically available report will be can be produced shortly after. The set up will follow previous consensus workshops arranged by NMBU/CERAD. For example, on debates on whether or not ionising radiation is harmful to wildlife [21,22]. This kind of output has a higher potential of impacting policy than a standard stakeholder meeting.