Analysis of the activities of the website "Question and Answer about radiation in Daily Life" after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and some lessons learned from it; To pass on this experience to the future

Kono, Takahiko; Shimo, Michikuni*; Hayakawa, Hironobu*; Taniguchi, Kazufumi*; Tanaka, Masato*; Tanaka, Hitomi*; Onoue, Yosuke*; Nagaya, Hiroshi*; Torii, Hiroyuki*; Uno, Kazuko*

Hoken Butsuri (Internet), 55(4), p.226 - 238, 2020/12

https://doi.org/10.5453/jhps.55.226

After the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, artificial radionuclides such as radioactive cesium and iodine were released into the environment. It caused great anxiety not only in the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station but also in other regions of Japan. Some members of the Japan Health Physics Society (JHPS) which is a leading academic society in Japan in the field of radiation protection volunteered to establish the website called "Question and Answer about radiation in Daily Life" just after the accident to reduce the anxiety of the residents about the health effects of radiation. After that, Committee of "Question and Answer about radiation in Daily Life" was established in August 2011 in JHPS, and this activity had been carried out under the responsibility of the society that answered with sincerity against questions from the public as specialists until February 2013. The number of questions on the website had gradually decreased as time passed; therefore, the Committee members decided to end these activities in February 2013. In this paper, following contents were shown; the activities of the Q&A website for about two years, the issues of the stance on our activities, the information related to the website activities and the analysis of Twitter data. Based on the experience and the knowledge obtained from these activities, the issues and experiences that can be utilized in the initial response to emergencies for radiation protection experts as well as other fields are presented.