REVIEW article
Front. Nucl. Eng.
Sec. Nuclear Safety
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Modeling and Management Strategies for Nuclear and Radiological IncidentsView all articles
Advanced Modeling and Management Strategies for Nuclear and Radiological Incidents: From Decision Support to Adaptive Governance
Provisionally accepted
- CNCAN, Bucuresti, Romania
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Nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness and response (EPR) including decision-support systems and emergency management frameworks operate at the intersection of advanced technical modelling, organizational processes, human decision-making, and societal dynamics. This review is based on a critical synthesis of the scientific and institutional literature addressing dispersion modelling, decision-support systems, emergency management frameworks, and large-scale exercise practice in nuclear and radiological emergencies. By examining how modelling outputs are generated, interpreted, and operationalized across preparedness and response contexts, the review identifies persistent gaps between analytical capabilities and real-world decision-making under uncertainty, time pressure, and multi-actor coordination. The analysis reveals that while significant progress has been achieved in modelling and computational tools, their integration into adaptive management and governance structures remains limited. Existing decision-support approaches often emphasize predefined scenarios and procedural compliance, offering limited support for exploratory reasoning and trade-off analysis in complex and evolving emergencies. Building on these findings, the review advances the concept of Hybrid Emergency Operations Centers (Hybrid EOCs) as an integrative operational and governance framework that connects modelling, decision-support, organizational workflows, and human-in-the-loop decision-making. Rather than prescribing optimal decisions, the proposed approach positions advanced modelling to structure decision spaces, enhance transparency, and support adaptive judgement within complex emergency response ecosystems.
Keywords: Advanced modelling, complex adaptive systems, Decision support systems, Emergency Management Governance, emergency preparedness and response, Human-in-the-loop decision-making, Hybrid-EmergencyOperations Center, Nuclear and RadiologicalEmergency
Received: 18 Jan 2026; Accepted: 12 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 MIN. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Petre MIN
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