Since the International Commission on Radiological Protection recommended reducing the occupational equivalent dose limit for the lens of the eye in 2011, there have been extensive discussions in various countries. This paper reviews the current situation in radiation protection of the ocular lens and the discussions on the potential impact of the new lens dose limit in Japan. Topics include historical changes to the lens dose limit, the current situation with occupational lens exposures (e.g., in medical workers, nuclear workers, and Fukushima nuclear power plant workers) and measurements, and the current status of biological studies and epidemiological studies on radiation cataracts. Our focus is on the situation in Japan, but we believe such information sharing will be useful in many other countries.

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In order to establish a plan for occupational dose reduction at operating plants, outage inspection works that involve high-dose exposure were selected and a determination of the major causes of high-dose exposure made by plant-by-plant comparison of doses received during inspection works. The comparison was made to investigate the relationship between exposure and the volume of objects to be inspected, working time and man-hour of each work process and ambient dose rates at work areas. In parallel with this, an analysis has also been carried out on 400 data items in a questionnaire survey conducted on relevant individuals, including foremen, radiation safety personnel, on-site workers and plant designers regarding ideas for dose reduction methods. With combination of these two analyses, matters that require improvement will be highlighted, then modification of equipment or revision of work procedures necessary for occupational dose reduction will be planned by plant designers through review.

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