Climate change impacts on radiological risk management in hospitals

The impacts of climate change (cc) are more and more burdensome, not only because extreme events are increasing in frequency and intensity, but also because the severity of the impact also depends on the vulnerability of the system. The accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) has brought new attention on the matter of adaptation of NPPs due to external events related to natural causes, but NPPs are not the only situations in which the use of ionizing radiation is affected by the impact of cc. In particular also at the hospitals the radiological risks due to cc extreme events and disasters have to be considered and managed.