NUCLEAR CRISIS--9 MONTHS ON / Focus on radiation screenings ended up claiming patients' lives


The Nuclear Safety Commission was in disarray over the screening.

On March 14, the Fukushima prefectural government raised the standard for designating people requiring full-body decontamination from 13,000 counts per minute (cpm) or more, which was based on its radiation emergency medicine manual, to 100,000 cpm or more. The cpm refers to the number of atoms in a given quantity of radioactive material to decay in one minute.

There were fears that, under the original standard, there would be too many people requiring full-body decontamination, preventing smooth evacuation due to staff shortage.

Also, water necessary for decontamination was in short supply due to suspension of water services.

"Decontamination was difficult in the situation. It was irrational to apply the normal standard to an emergency situation," said Hiroshima University Prof. Koichi Tanigawa, who suggested the prefecture raise the standard.

However, the NSC's Technical Advisory Organization, an emergency panel convened by the commission in a nuclear emergency, announced the same day the previous standard was appropriate.

This resulted in double standards between the central and prefectural governments. There were fears evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture would have been denied entry to evacuation centers in other prefectures, where the standard for full-body decontamination was lower than Fukushima Prefecture.

However, in a sudden reversal, the advisory organization on March 19 approved the increase of the standard to 100,000 cpm.

"To evacuate people to areas outside of the prefecture smoother, the standards should be unified," a panel source said.

"It took us time to understand the situation in the prefecture," NSC Chairman Haruki Madarame, explained.

It was not until April 17, more than one month after the March 11 disaster, when advisory panel investigators visited Fukushima Prefecture for the first time.
[link to www.yomiuri.co.jp]



- I love how the Japanese change the rules to suit the situation. Kinda hard to pin them down for breaking them.
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