2011-09-14
On September 11 and 12, 2011, the Nippon Foundation held the International Expert Symposium in Fukushima: Radiation and Health Risks at the Fukushima Medical University to obtain advice from the world’s experts, to communicate information about the health risks of radiation, and to gain an understanding of what constitutes effective risk awareness. Thirty-one world experts were invited to make a collective evaluation of the health risks faced by people living in Fukushima. Among them were sixteen ICRP members: the Vice-chair, 6 other Main Commission members, the Scientific Secretary, an emeritus member of the Main Commission, and 7 Committee members.
The symposium included sessions on: the facts of Fukushima; Low-level Irradiation and Health - Challenges Involved in Emergency Medicine; Dose, Dosimetry and Dose Estimations of Contaminated Areas; Radiobiology and Radioepidemiology; Lessons Learned from the Chernobyl Accident; and, Radiation Safety and Guidelines Regarding Health Risks. A press conference, attended by nearly one hundred members of the press, was held to present the conclusions of the symposium.
The following day many of the international experts, including ICRP members who had attended the symposium, accompanied Parliamentary Secretary Yasuhiro Sonoda as advisors during a visit to the J-Village staging area, the 20 km evacuated zone, and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The group was accompanied by Akio Komori, Managing Director of TEPCO.