Total of 9 TEPCO Workers Exposed to Radiation over Limit

Fukushima, June 20 (Jiji Press)—A total of nine employees of Tokyo
Electric Power Co. who worked at its crippled nuclear power plant in
northeastern Japan have been exposed to cumulative radiation doses above
the government-set emergency limit of 250 millisieverts, TEPCO said Monday.

The operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear station, which was
severely damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, said it newly
found in provisional checkups that one male employee in his 20s was
exposed to 335.4 millisieverts, including an internal exposure of 300.5
millisieverts. He was engaged in work to restore measuring instruments
in a central control room and other jobs at the plant.

The male worker took a drug to counter radioactive iodine on March
28, the company said.

Meanwhile, another TEPCO man, who was shift supervisor in charge of
controlling the power station’s No. 3 and No. 4 reactors when the plant
was hit by the disaster, was confirmed to have been exposed to 352.1
millisieverts, including internal exposures of 241.8 millisieverts. His
tentative internal exposure reading stood at 240 millisieverts.

Both of them, however, have remained healthy so far, TEPCO said.

Jiji Press, June 20, 2011
http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011062000873

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 N-worker’s mask left no room for glasses

Wearing eyeglasses behind his safety mask contributed to a worker at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant receiving more than double the maximum allowed dose of radiation, according to a Tokyo Electric Power Co. investigation.

TEPCO said the man’s eyeglasses prevented his protective mask from forming a tight seal against his face, enabling radioactive substances to get in.

The man, in his 30s, was exposed to 678 millisieverts of radiation while working at the plant in the days after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The upper limit for an emergency worker is cumulative exposure of 250 millisieverts.

Another man, in his 40s, who worked at the plant at the same time was exposed to 643 millisieverts.

At a press conference Friday—at which a revised plan for settling the nuclear crisis was also announced—TEPCO said it had taken additional steps to monitor the radiation exposure of workers at the plant, such as having them wear dosimeters while on duty that automatically record radiation doses.

The same day, TEPCO told the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency it would work to prevent similar incidents in the future. Preventive steps to be taken include purchasing masks that provide proper protection even when worn with eyeglasses.

From March 11 to March 13, the two men worked in the plant’s No. 3 and No. 4 reactors’ central control rooms, which are located in the same building. They were responsible for checking data and other tasks, TEPCO said.

They were reassigned to a building that houses the firm’s emergency headquarters, where radiation levels were lower than in the control rooms, on the evening of March 13.

The two did not take potassium iodide tablets, which prevent radioactive iodine from accumulating in the body. There were no such tablets stored in the control rooms.

The men were so busy in the control rooms, they ate at their posts, which required removing their protective masks. If they had been less busy, they could have gone to the headquarters building to eat, where radiation levels were lower.

The man in his 40s was working near the emergency exit of the control room from March 11 to March 13. The exit seal was damaged by a hydrogen explosion at the No. 1 reactor on the evening of March 12, and TEPCO believes this resulted in radioactive substances entering the control room.

The Yomiuri Shimbun , Jun. 19, 2011
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110618002859.htm

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 French find cesium in Shizuoka tea

PARIS – The French government has decided to dispose of a shipment of green tea from Shizuoka Prefecture after detecting radioactive cesium above the European Union limit at Charles de Gaulle airport, an official said Friday.

The tea is the first food item imported from Japan to exceed the EU radiation limit of 500 becquerels per kg since March 11, when the nuclear crisis erupted at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

France detected radiation of 1,038 becquerels per kg in the 162 kg shipment of green tea, they said.

On June 11, it was reported that the Shizuoka Prefectural Government told a Tokyo-based mail order company not to post on its website that excessive radioactive material was being found in tea from the prefecture.

The retailer, Radishbo-ya Co., said a prefectural official told it not to disclose the finding to customers because it might cause “unwarranted harm” to Shizuoka tea growers, the report said.

Kyodo, June 19, 2011
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110619a4.html

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 ’We want information!’ – Kanto residents make own radiation measurements

As the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant drags on, an increasing number of concerned citizens in Tokyo and the surrounding areas have started to measure radiation levels on their own.

One local government in Saitama Prefecture has been flooded with applications from residents wanting to use its radiation-measuring instrument.

People have become anxious about so-called hot spots, in which radiation levels in isolated places are much higher than the surrounding areas. Parents with small children have been especially uneasy about the situation.

The privately run Mikuni Kindergarten in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, chose to remove the surface soil of its playground after measuring its radiation level. Readings that had reached up to 0.52 microsieverts per hour have decreased to 0.15 microsieverts.

According to measurements by the prefectural government, radiation levels in the city were lower than provisional limits. However, the kindergarten decided to make its own radiation measurements as radiation levels in Kashiwa have been reported to be higher than other areas.

“I’m not sure whether our reaction [removing the soil] was correct, but we did what we could to protect our children,” said Satoshi Sugiyama, manager of the kindergarten.

Yuka Sasaki’s 4-year-old son attends Mikuni. “I’m thankful the kindergarten took quick action. I wish other places would do similar things,” she said.

Yuko Midoro’s 3-year-old son will enter the kindergarten next spring. She has measured radiation levels in parks and other places together with other parents whose children go to Mikuni. Midoro bought a handheld radiation-measuring device after the prefectural government announced radiation levels in Kashiwa were higher than other areas. She said she worries radiation might be affecting her child.

The Yashio municipal government in Saitama Prefecture has been lending out a radiation-measuring device to its citizens free of charge since June 14. The city has measured radiation levels on the roof of its office building since May 9 and posted the results on its Web site.

After the city received several requests from citizens wanting to know the radiation levels in the areas around their houses, it purchased a measuring instrument for about 120,000 yen. As soon as the city made the device available, it was deluged with applications and the tool is now reserved until August. The city said it wants to buy another one soon.

In Koto Ward, Tokyo, a local parents group measured radiation levels at nine locations at the end of May, receiving assistance from experts. The locations included parks, day care centers and areas near a sewerage disposal plant. The group has also asked the metropolitan and ward governments to make detailed and open surveys on all educational facilities and parks.

The metropolitan government had previously measured radiation only at one location in Shinjuku Ward, but in accordance with requests from residents, it expanded its survey spots to about 100 locations from Wednesday.

Tatsuya Nozaki and Yoichiro Mori, Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers, June 19, 2011
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110618002799.htm

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 Fukushima prepares extensive study of radiation health effects on residents

FUKUSHIMA—The Fukushima prefectural government plans to monitor health effects from radiation leaking from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in a program that could follow some residents for up to 30 years.

The study will be an unprecedented one in terms of length and number of people covered. But because it will be impossible to conduct thorough health checks on all 2 million residents of Fukushima, a two-step plan is being considered.

A preliminary study will begin in early July on a small sample of residents from areas that have had high radiation levels in the air.

The preliminary study will be used to prepare for the wider study and will also be designed to alleviate the health concerns of Fukushima residents.

Details of the preliminary study are expected to be decided on at a meeting June 18 of Fukushima prefectural government officials, officials of the relevant central government ministries as well as experts in radiation medicine.

The prefectural government plans to hold meetings before the start of the study to explain to residents what will be done and address other concerns they may have.

Under the proposal for the preliminary study, about 100 residents from such municipalities as Iitate and Namie that have had high radiation readings will be selected as a sample group.

Those selected will undergo thorough testing for internal radiation contamination, including testing with a whole body counter as well as checks of the thyroid gland where radioactive iodine can readily accumulate. Urine samples will also be tested to determine if radioactive materials were ingested.

Various municipal governments will be asked to choose the subjects, including children, but the total number of people selected could exceed 100.

The residents will be asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire showing the location and how much time they spent indoors, outdoors or in cars over about a two-week period from March 11.

Experts will use that information to estimate radiation levels the individual may have been exposed to based on the levels in the air for those times.

The estimated radiation levels will be compared with actual radiation levels detected during the in-depth measuring stage.

The selected residents will also be asked how much milk they drank from cows raised on family farms and how much water from nearby wells. Women will be asked if they are pregnant or breast-fed their babies.

The prefectural government plans to complete the preliminary study by the end of July and begin the actual study from autumn.

All Fukushima residents will receive questionnaires through the mail to record what they did and where they were over the two-week period from March 11. Estimates of radiation exposure levels will be calculated in a similar fashion to the preliminary study.

Because thorough radiation monitoring of all Fukushima residents would be impossible, only those found to have comparatively high estimated radiation exposure levels will actually undergo monitoring that includes blood and urine tests.

The data will be stored for at least 30 years at a database created by the Fukushima Medical University to conduct follow-up health checks on residents found to have high exposure levels.

Because residents will be asked to recall what they did over a two-week period from about three months ago, researchers will be racing against time to accumulate accurate records that can help make valid estimates.

Hydrogen explosions at a number of reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant in the first few days after the nuclear accident led to radioactive materials being spewed over a wide area.

That means the amount of time a resident spent outdoors during that time will greatly influence his or her radiation exposure level.

Despite the scale of the proposed study, it may not be easy to clearly determine what, if any, health effects may occur due to the radiation from the Fukushima plant.

It has generally been thought that health effects will only arise if an individual is exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation. However, the general opinion of experts is that the average Fukushima resident was likely exposed to, at most, several dozen millisieverts of radiation.

Although that is much higher than the 2.4 millisieverts per year of natural radiation in the air, it is not at a level in which health effects have been confirmed in past studies.

“At such low levels of radiation exposure, it is very conceivable than health effects from smoking or the stress of evacuation could be greater than radiation exposure,” said Toshiteru Okubo, chairman of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation.

However, the experience of hibakusha atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki also indicates that it will take decades before health effects from radiation exposure, such as an increase in cancer, become obvious.

The Fukushima study will go beyond any that has been conducted on hibakusha in Hiroshima and Nagasaki because it will include measurement of internal contamination levels.

(This article was written by Yuri Oiwa, Yasufumi Kado and Yoshinori Hayashi.)

Asahi Shimbun, June 18, 2011
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106170203.html

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