External effective radiation dose to workers in the restricted area of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant during the third year after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, Iitate Village has continued to be classified as a deliberate evacuation area, in which residents are estimated to receive an annual additional effective radiation dose of >20 mSv. Some companies still operate in Iitate Village, with a special permit from the Cabinet Office Team in Charge of Assisting the Lives of Disaster Victims. In this study, we measured the annual effective radiation dose to workers in Iitate Village from 15 January to 13 December 2013. The workers stayed in Iitate for 10 h and left the village for the remaining 14 h each working day. They worked for 5 days each week in Iitate Village, but stayed outside of the village for the remaining 2 days each week. We found that the effective radiation dose of 70% of the workers was <2 mSv, including natural radiation; the maximum dose was 3.6 mSv. We estimated the potential annual additional effective radiation dose if people returned full-time to Iitate. Our analysis supports the plan for people to return to their home village at the end of 2017.

A report that Fukushima residents are concerned about radiation from Land, Food and Radon

“…In addition, it might be possible that the public who were particularly concerned about radiation tended to respond to the questionnaire of this survey, which could affect the statistics in an unexpected way. Further study with sufficient improvement on the points above is undertaken by our group in an ongoing way [ 10 ].…”

Radiological protection challenges facing business activities affected by a nuclear accident: some lessons from the management of the accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

“…Therefore, employees who wished to continue working in the factory were allowed to work 5 days a week and 10 hours a day. Due to the evacuation order, they were not allowed to live in the village of Iitate and they had to commute from their temporary houses located outside the village, sometimes with travelling time of more than one hour (Public Information Journal of Iitate, 2012;Sakumi et al, 2016).…”

“…The results showed that for this period the annual external effective dose including natural background was less than 2 mSv for 70% of the workers. The maximum annual effective dose reached 3.6 mSv for a worker having outdoor activities (Sakumi et al, 2016). A study conducted by the Fukushima Medical University (FMU) with the Iitate factory and other companies located in the evacuated areas showed that the general health of workers could be deteriorated by overtime work and commuting-time, decreased physical activity and sleeping time (Orui et al, 2018).…”

External Dose to Recovery Teams Following a Wide-area Nuclear or Radiological Release Event

“…A number of studies present dosimetry calculations for various contamination scenarios and remediation options (Kamboj et al 2009; Thiessen et al 2009b and c; Furuta and Takahashi 2015), including studies on populations near Fukushima Daiichi (Harada et al 2014; Kinase et al 2015; Naito et al 2016). While these important investigations provide valuable information for stakeholders, studies to quantify the dose incurred by workers performing a remediation effort for roadways and buildings appear to be limited to workers in villages near Fukushima Daiichi (Suto et al 2013; Tsubokura et al 2013; Etherington et al 2014; Sakumi et al 2015). The present study focuses on the common radionuclide 137 Cs because this radionuclide is a dominating, long-term gamma-ray source term for nuclear detonations, some radionuclide dispersal devices, and nuclear reactor accidents (Leikin et al 2003).…”