This week's update — Which direction should Japanese energy policy take? (16th January, 2012)
Updated academic articles and columns
In response to the Fukushima nuclear power plants accident, the Japanese government and people begun to review its energy policy. Mr. Nobuo Tanaka, former Executive Director of IEA (International Energy Agency), contributed a column "Reflecting on Japan’s Energy Policy Review".
Mr. Tanaka was the Exective Director of IEA from 2007 until 2011. IEA researches and make recommendations on world energy and its policies of member countries, as well as some non-member states. He points out the strengths and weaknesses of energy systems in Japan and encourages Japanese to build a new system
GEPR editorial staffs provided a column, "Low Potentiality of Health Damage by the Fukushima Accident”. This refers to an academic article ”Effect of Recent Changes in Atomic Bomb Survivor Dosimetry on Cancer Mortality Risk Estimates".
There are many records of medical research on atomic bombs victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki over 50 years. We summarized information on cancer and leukemia. The result shows that the potential health hazard by low-dose radiation exposure below 100 millisieverts (mSv) is very small.
Articles and Reports
Effect of low-dose radiation seems to be particularly attracting our readers. We, therefore, provided information on this problem.
1) There are “rumors” in Japanese society that health hazards spread among nuclear plant workers, though there are no such facts. Radiation Effect Association (Tokyo, Japan) provides a survey on health effects about them. (Report "Epidemiological Survey of Nuclear Power Plant Workers between 2005-2009" (Japanese only)
It surveys 203,904 workers from 2005 to 2009, and the average cumulative dose-exposure was 13.3 mSv per capita. Health hazards are not observed among them in this research.
2) "Health Survey of Local Residents in High Natural Radiation" (Japanese only) Human Nature Study Foundation (Kyoto, Japan)
There are regions in the world with high-dose natural radiation. The annual radiation are, in Ramsar (Iran) 10.2mSv average, 260mSv maximum, Guarapari (Brazil) 5.5mSv average, 35mSv maximum, and in Kerala (India) 3.8 mSv average, and 35mSv maximum. In Japan it is 0.46mSv average and 1.26mSv maximum. Health damage caused by radiation in these areas has not been observed.
News
The Economist, UK, reports "The Fukushima black box".
They say "A dangerous lack of urgency in drawing lessons from Japan’s nuclear disaster" and criticized Tokyo Electric Power Company who runs the Fukushima nuclear power plants, and the Japanese government.
