Ala Detsyk

Ala Detsyk was born in Belarus. She graduated from Belorussian Pedagogical University in Minsk. In 2000-2001, she studied Political Science in Institute of Political Science in Grenoble (France). In September 2001, she defended her master thesis on educational policy in France. From 2002 to 2005 she worked as research assistant at Brest Branch of Research Institute of Radiology (Belarus). She was involved in the Institute’s research program on long-term social and psychological consequences of the Chernobyl accident in Belarus. She also participated in the project on radiological risk communication towards pregnant women living in contaminated areas. She started her PhD in May 2006.

Radiological Risk Governance Regime in UK and France: the case of contamination in the food chain
 
Supervisors: Dr Henry Rothstein and Dr Brooke Rogers
 
Since the Chernobyl accident, which led to a considerable radioactive release across Europe, there has been increasing attention at national, European and international level to developing regulatory framework and coping strategies in respect to the Chernobyl accident itself as well as in the event of a future accident. The threat of terrorist attacks has reinforced this interest. A number of research projects (e.g. ETHOS, SAGE, FARMING, EURANOS) have been initiated by the European Commission in order to improve existing emergency management schemes and elaborate restoration strategies. With the same purpose, governments of European countries have been conducting preparation work involving specialised agencies, ministerial departments, expert institutions, national and local authorities, and non-governmental stakeholders. This work has resulted in crisis management plans being revised, and post-accident rehabilitation framework being designed. The research will be looking at the evolution of radiological risk governance regimes in two European countries – UK and France - at different stages: from “normal time” through the emergency phase of a radiological accident, to the late post-accident phase. Doing so, it seeks to explore different factors and forces inside and outside of regimes, which shape the way they are organized and work. The research aims to identify significant areas of convergence and divergence in national risk governance regimes and interpret them in the light of the findings about shaping factors.