Comment:
Nuclear Power Plant Fire: What Does a Public Administrator Do?*
You are an emergency manager for Navajo County, Arizona. An alarm just arrived notifying you that there is a fire burning inside one of the reactor buildings in a nearby nuclear power plant. The plant manager has notified authorities that the fire is not likely to cause radiation leak. The plant is currently on alert, but is considering declaring a site area emergency.
The nuclear facility is located 5 miles from the Navajo Reservation and ten miles from the county seat town, which is where you and your wife and your two young children live. If there is a radiation leak, the wind will likely carry the radiation across the reservation, but there is a chance that the wind could shift and carry it over the county seat.
What would you do in this situation? Should you take the initiative to act in a discretionary way and warn citizens of the possible health risks of a radiation leak? If you choose to take action who should you warn first and why? Or, should you avoid acting in the situation unless explicitly required to do, thereby not panicking the public?
Does your reaction to this situation demonstrate that you are aware of the needs with all citizens with whom you interact on your job?
Finally, should you hold back on providing information to local media outlets that may later prove to be embarrassing because the fire is contained at the nuclear power plant? Why or why not?
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Directions:
** You have to use this document in your writing ((IMPLEMENTING THE ASPA CODE OF ETHICS: Workbook and Assessment Guide. American Society for Public Administration Ethics and Standards Implementation Committee James Svara, et. al. (November 22, 2015) is provided in this link.
https://www.aspanet.org/ASPADocs/Resources/Ethics_Assessment_Guide.pdf
The purpose of the reading prompt/discussion forum is to have you engage in a dialogue with other students in the class on a topic dealing with the legal and ethical environment in which public administrators must function. Your participation in the Reading Prompt/Practice Problem A will be assessed on the following criteria: (1) a demonstration that you have read and understand the material in the assigned readings well as supplemental reading materials; (2) the quality of your writing, including whether the ideas are well-developed, well-organized, and without grammar, punctuation, or capitalization mistakes; (3) whether all the questions asked have been adequately addressed; (4) whether the strongest counter-arguments to your position have been addressed; and (5) the quality of the interaction (both substantively and professionally) between you and your colleagues.
