Current Fukishima headlines #2:

[OKIsItJustMe]

12. Preliminary Dose Estimation from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake…

http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/pub_meet/fukushima_dose_assessment/en/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Preliminary Dose Estimation from the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami[/font]

Authors:
WHO

Publication details

Number of pages: 120
Publication date: 2012
Languages: English
ISBN: 9789241593662
Downloads

English
pdf, 1.85Mb

[font size=3]Overview

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11 March 2011 led to releases of radioactive material into the environment from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear site. This report describes a preliminary estimate of radiation doses to the public resulting from this accident. These doses are assessed for different age groups in locations around the world, using assumptions described in the report.

The dose assessment forms one part of the overall health risk assessment being carried out by WHO of the global impact of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The health risk assessment is the subject of a separate WHO report which will be published in Summer 2012.[/font][/font]

http://www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/pressrels/2012/unisous144.html

[font face=Serif]UNIS/OUS/144
23 May 2012

[font size=5]Interim Findings of Fukushima-Daiichi Assessment presented at the Annual Meeting of UNSCEAR[/font]

[font size=3]VIENNA, 23 May (UN Information Service) - Some of the interim findings of a major assessment into the 11 March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident will be made public today after review by international experts attending the annual meeting of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) in Vienna, 21 - 25 May 2012.

UNSCEAR now has a good understanding of the nature and composition of the releases to the atmosphere from the four damaged reactors, Wolfgang Weiss, Chair of UNSCEAR, said. Together with measurements of radioactive elements in the air, soil, water and food, the study will be able to assess doses to adults and children in different areas of Japan, considering important organs such as the thyroid.

"We have been given information about measurements made on the thyroids of over 1,000 children in Iitate village, Kawamata town and Iwaki city," said Weiss. "Also, a survey in Fukushima prefecture is aiming to evaluate irradiation levels for some 2 million people living in the prefecture at the time of the accident. The results of the UNSCEAR assessment for these areas will be compared with the Japanese measurements and analysis, and any differences will be highlighted and addressed," said Weiss.

As of 31 January 2012 a total of 20,115 TEPCO related workers, more than 80 per cent of them contractors, had been involved in operations following the accident at Fukushima-Daiichi. A key point among the interim findings is that although several workers were irradiated after contamination of their skin, no clinically observable effects have been reported. Six workers have died since the accident but none of the deaths were linked to irradiation, the findings say.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/24/fukushima-gets-mixed-radiation-report

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Fukushima gets mixed radiation report from WHO[/font]
[font size=4]Agency says radiation exposure from nuclear power plant's meltdown was below levels thought to increase risk of cancer, but one town's infants could be at greater risk[/font]

Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 May 2012 07.20 EDT

[font size=3]Radiation exposure caused by last year's accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was below levels thought to increase the risk of cancer in almost all parts of Japan, according to a World Health Organisation report.

But in its preliminary estimate [pdf] released on Wednesday, the WHO said infants in one town near the plant could be at a greater risk of developing thyroid cancer after exposure to radioactive iodine-131.

…

The independent experts who compiled the report said that people in the towns of Namie, located inside the 12-mile nuclear evacuation zone, and Iitate, which lies 25 miles north-west of Fukushima Daiichi, may have received the highest doses, of between 10 millisieverts a year and 50mSv in the wake of the accident.

…

In a separate interim report, the UN's scientific committee on the effects of radiation (Unscear) said that none of the deaths of six plant workers since last March was related to radiation. It added that several workers had been "irradiated after contamination of their skin", but that no clinically observable health effects had been reported.

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