Biodosimetry of Restoration Workers for The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Accident

Abstract

The biological dose of nuclear workers engaged in emergency response tasks at Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station was estimated in the present study. As the national core center for radiation emergency medical preparedness in Japan, the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) received all individuals who were suspected of being overexposed to acute radiation. In the course of health examinations at NIRS, biological dosimetry was performed by the dicentric chromosome assay (DCA). Twelve individuals were examined from 21 March-1 July 2011. The results indicated that the estimated exposure doses for all individuals were lower than 300 mGy, with the mean value of about 101 mGy. These results by DCA were in accordance with those obtained by physical dosimetry based on personal dosimeter recording assessment. The results corroborate the fact that no acute radiation syndrome was observed among the workers examined.

Corporate Social Responsibility Demonstrated in Different Approaches to Corporate Extended Performance Reporting

“…Emergency steps in response to this incident showed corporate responsibility. Tokyo Electric Power Company failed to uphold safety guidelines and falsified documents in order to reduce hefty maintenance costs, which undoubtedly tainted Tokyo Electric Power Company's reputation (Suto et al, 2013). This incident shows the importance of establishing corporate social responsibility, as Tokyo Electric Power Company, which did not take this matter seriously by ignoring public safety concerns, suffered drastic losses as a consequence.…”

“…Moreover, this incident also revealed the drawbacks of Tokyo Electric Power Company's risk management ability. In fact, Tokyo Electric Power Company was already aware of the potential likelihood of an accident, but declined to take serious preventive action (Suto et al, 2013).…”

“…Secondly, the risk management approach can improve corporate reputation and enhance employee loyalty (Len & Heaton, 2006). Tokyo Electric Power Company suffered significant economic losses due to its neglect in managing risks thoroughly (Suto et al, 2013). Tokyo Electric Power Company now faces billions of dollars in damages as well as an irremediably tarnished image.…”

RENEB – Running the European Network of biological dosimetry and physical retrospective dosimetry

“…for inhabitants and visitors of contaminated sites, evacuees and liquidators (Stephan & Oestreicher 1989;Silini & Gouskova 1991;Verschaeve et al 1993;European Commission [EC] 1996;Maznik et al 1997) and also for people living in European areas with comparably high fallout measurements due to contaminated rain (Stephan & Oestreicher 1993). Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station accident, biodosimetry was performed for restoration workers (Suto et al 2013) and also for individuals who travelled to contaminated areas after the accident (Lee et al 2012). However, in all these studies biodosimetry was performed by single laboratories and the number of examined persons was rather limited.…”

Recent activities in environmental science and health physics

“…As a biodosimetry approach, Suto et al estimated the F1NPP recovery worker's internal dose by dicentric chromosome assay [5]. The results for 12 individuals indicate that the estimated doses were less than 300 mGy and that the mean was 101 mGy.…”