Radiological Protection of People and the Environment in the Event of a Large Nuclear Accident


Draft document: Radiological Protection of People and the Environment in the Event of a Large Nuclear Accident
Submitted by M.Mihara, none
Commenting as an individual

­¡ The Government of Japan established 20 millisieverts per year as a reference for returning to Fukushima based on ICRP recommendations. However, the dose limit for workers in radiation control areas is 1.2 mSv in 3 months (5.2 mSv per year). It is stipulated that the workers cannot eat, drink nor sleep in the radiation controlled areas. Young people under the age of 18 can not even enter.

The Japanese government tries to force evacuee children to return to areas in Fukushima where the contamination level is as much as 20 mSv. It’s their double standard and “abandonment” of the well-being of the people instead of protection. The ICRP should use 5 mSv as the standard for forced evacuation areas in the same way as Chernobyl.

 ­¢ Measuring radioactive contamination in the air alone is a biased method. They should also measure radioactivity in the soil. The air dose measurement counts the natural radioactivity in the air at the same time. Therefore, it should be stated in the ICRP reference that the Becquerel value that can measure β rays should be used as a measure in cases of nuclear accidents.  It is difficult for me to understand why the ICRP does not use the Becquerel value as an objective physical quantity.  In order to know the real radioactive contamination, Becquerel measurements should also be taken.

 ­£ I am against using personal dosimeters to grasp people’s exposure levels because there is a risk of minimizing the actual dosages.  Personal dosimeters are worn by nuclear power plant workers during their working hours and are mainly intended to measure the exposure from the front.  It’s not suitable to measure the radiation doses from all directions in the people’s residential areas. Also, many people testified in the surveyed areas that they left personal dosimeters at home because wearing personal dosimeters on a daily basis is a burden.  The Japanese government recommends personal dosimeters in order to keep the recorded dosages as low as possible. This is also a sign of their irresponsible “abandonment” policy which ignores the health of the people.


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