Effects of different accident scenarios and sites on the reduction factor used for expressing sheltering effectiveness

Hirouchi, Jun; Watanabe, Masatoshi*; Hayashi, Naho; Nagakubo, Azusa; Takahara, Shogo

Journal of Radiological Protection, 45(1), p.011506_1 - 011506_11, 2025/03

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/adba6e

Public living in areas contaminated by nuclear accidents is exposed to radiation in the early phase and over the long term. Even under similar accident scenarios, radiation doses and sheltering effectiveness, which is one of the protective measures, depend on meteorological conditions and the surrounding environment. Radiation doses and sheltering effectiveness in the early phase of nuclear accidents are crucial information for the public as well as national and local governments planning a nuclear emergency preparedness. In this study, we assessed radiation doses and sheltering effectiveness at sites with nuclear facilities in Japan using the Off-Site Consequence Analysis code for Atmospheric Release accidents, which is one of the level-3 probabilistic risk assessment codes, for five accident scenarios: three scenarios from past severe accident studies, a scenario defined by the Nuclear Regulation Authority in Japan, and a scenario corresponding to the Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident. The sheltering effectiveness differed by up to approximately 50% among the accident scenarios at the same sites and by approximately 20%50% among sites under the same accident scenario. Differences in the radionuclide composition among the accident scenarios and the differences in wind speeds among the sites primarily caused these differences in sheltering effectiveness.

Validating the application of the revised ICRP's biokinetic models for organic C and organically bound tritium to members of the public

Masuda, Tsuyoshi*; Manabe, Kentaro

Journal of Radiological Protection, 44(3), p.031517_1 - 031517_8, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ad7a04

If organic compound containing tritium or C-14 is taken into the body, it is metabolised into inorganic matter at a certain rate and excreted quickly. On the other hand, tritium and C-14 that remain in the organic form have a longer biological half-life than inorganic forms, and therefore contribute more to the radiation dose. For this reason, the metabolic ratio of organic matter is important for dose assessment. However, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) sets the metabolic ratio based on animal experiments or carbon mass balance. Therefore, we conducted a dose assessment by referring to the results of measuring the metabolic ratio by orally administering organic matter labelled with deuterium or C-13 to humans. As a result, it was found that the ICRP dose coefficient was appropriate for organic matter containing tritium, but that it was about twice as conservative for organic matter containing C-14.

Statistical evaluation of individual external exposure dose of outdoor worker and ambient dose rate at evacuation ordered zones after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Accident

Saisu, Motofumi*; Ando, Tadahiko*; Uchiyama, Keizo*; Ueno, Toshihiro*; Takizawa, Koichi*; Endo, Yuji*; Yoshimura, Kazuya; Sanada, Yukihisa

Journal of Radiological Protection, 44(2), p.021518_1 - 021518_16, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ad4b26

Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses for the reduction factor of sheltering for radiation exposures

Hirouchi, Jun; Takahara, Shogo; Komagamine, Hiroshi*

Journal of Radiological Protection, 42(4), p.041503_1 - 041503_12, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/aca0ff

Sheltering is one of the countermeasures against radiation exposure during nuclear accidents. The effectiveness of sheltering for inhalation exposure is often expressed by the reduction factor, which is defined as the ratio of the indoor to the outdoor cumulative radioactivity concentrations or doses. The indoor concentration is mainly controlled by the air exchange rate, penetration factor, and indoor deposition rate. Meanwhile, the air exchange rate depends on surrounding environmental conditions: the wind speed, leakage area normalized by the floor area of the house, and gross building coverage ratio. In this study, the ranges of the uncertainty of the reduction factors for particles and I were investigated under various environmental conditions, and sensitivity analyses were conducted to understand the parameter with the most influence on the uncertainty of the reduction factor. From the results of the uncertainty analyses, the calculated reduction factor was highly variable depending on the environmental condition and the airtightness of the houses. The uncertainty ranges of the reduction factor for particles and I were up to 0.9 and 0.3, respectively, and were smaller for newer houses. From the results of the sensitivity analyses, the wind speed was the most influential parameter on the reduction factor. Additionally, the wind speed was less influential for the reduction factor in newer houses.

Radiation exposure to the lens of the eye for Japanese nuclear power plant workers

Yokoyama, Sumi*; Tatsuzaki, Hideo*; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Hirao, Shigekazu*; Aoki, Katsunori; Tachiki, Shuichi*; Ezaki, Iwao*; Hoshi, Katsuya; Tsujimura, Norio

Journal of Radiological Protection, 42(3), p.031504_1 - 031504_17, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ac7913

In Japan, the radiation-dose limit for the lens of the eye was revised in April 2021. Consequently, for workers, the numerical values of the equivalent dose to the lens of the eye are equal to those of the effective dose. Radiation workers, radiation safety officers and licensees must comply with regulations related to radiation protection and optimize protection. The new guidelines on dose monitoring of the lens of the eye developed by the Japan Health Physics Society recommend for the dose to be estimated near the eye for accurate estimation, when the dose to the lens approaches or exceeds the management criteria. However, there is limited information regarding the non-uniform exposure of nuclear power plant workers. In this study, the dose equivalents of high-dose-rate workplaces and the personal doses of 88 workers were estimated at four Japanese commercial nuclear power plant sites (RWR: 3 units and BWR: 3 units) and the dose to the lens of the eye and the exposure situations of the workers were analyzed.

Methodological developments and practice in characterisation of unconventional and legacy waste

Strand, P.*; Jefferies, N.*; Koma, Yoshikazu; Plyer, J.*

Journal of Radiological Protection, 42(2), p.020501_1 - 020501_16, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ac4b02

Review of engagement activities to promote awareness of radiation and its associated risk amongst the Japanese public before and after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

Sakoda, Akihiro; Nomura, Naoki*; Kuroda, Yujiro*; Kono, Takahiko; Naito, Wataru*; Yoshida, Hiroko*

Journal of Radiological Protection, 41(4), p.1258 - 1287, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ac2678

Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, many radiation experts directly experienced a vast gap between ideal and real public understanding (PU) of radiation in risk communication. Therefore, this study collated and reviewed information about PU activities for radiation and its risk that six Japanese academic societies - which seemed to be socially neutral expert communities - related to radiation and radiation risk conducted before and after the accident. Activities these radiation-related societies provided to general public were discussed from the following perspectives: (1) difficulties in two-way communication due to resources, motivation, public interest and concerns; (2) balance between academic research and PU activities; (3) academic societies' building trust with the public whilst ensuring member experts' neutrality and independence; (4) discussions among academic societies to prepare for public engagement. We hope that this paper encourages experts and academic societies in radiation protection to hold more national and international discussions about their roles in public communication and outreach.

Current status of the environmental monitoring database on the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

Seki, Akiyuki; Saito, Kimiaki; Takemiya, Hiroshi

Journal of Radiological Protection, 41(3), p.S89 - S98, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/abfbc1

An enormous amount of environmental monitoring data has been acquired by various organizations for evaluation and implementation of countermeasure to mitigate the effects of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. We established procedures to collect these data, convert them into a unified format, classify them according to categories, and make the data accessible on a web-based database system. The database system enabled us to spatially and temporally compare large volumes of monitoring data. By using the database functions, characteristics of some representative data in the database were clarified.

Dosimetric dependence of ocular structures on eye size and shape for external radiation fields of electrons, photons, and neutrons

Furuta, Takuya; El Basha, D.*; Iyer, S. S. R.*; Correa Alfonso, C. M.*; Bolch, W. E.*

Journal of Radiological Protection, 39(3), p.825 - 837, 2019/09

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/ab2bcb

Despite large variation of human eye, only one computational eye model has been adopted in almost all the radiation transport simulation studies. We thus adopted a new scalable and deformable eye model and studied the radiation exposure by electrons, photons, and neutrons in the standard radiation fields such as AP, PA, RLAT, ROT, by using Monte Carlo radiation transport code PHITS. We computed the radiation exposure for 5 eye models (standard, large, small, myopic, hyperopic) and analyzed influence of absorbed dose in ocular structures on eye size and shape. Dose distribution of electrons is conformal and therefore the absorbed doses in ocular structures depend on the depth location of each ocular structure. We thus found a significant variation of the absorbed doses for each ocular structure for electron exposure due to change of the depth location affected by eye size and shape. On the other hand only small variation was observed for photons and neutrons exposures because of less conformal dose distribution of those particles.

Integrating radiation protection criteria for radioactive waste management into remediation procedures in existing exposure situations after a nuclear accident

Sugiyama, Daisuke*; Kimura, Hideo; Tachikawa, Hirokazu*; Iimoto, Takeshi*; Kawata, Yosuke*; Ogino, Haruyuki*; Okoshi, Minoru*

Journal of Radiological Protection, 38(1), p.456 - 462, 2018/03

https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6498/aaa155

Experience after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has shown that there is a need to establish radiation protection criteria for radioactive waste management consistent with the criteria adopted for the remediation of existing exposure situations. A stepwise approach to setting such criteria is proposed. Initially, a reference level for annual effective dose from waste management activities in the range 1-10 mSv should be set, with the reference level being less than the reference level for ambient dose. Subsequently, the reference level for annual effective dose from waste management activities should be reduced in one or more steps to achieve a final target value of 1 mSv. The dose criteria at each stage should be determined with relevant stakeholder involvement. Illustrative case studies show how this stepwise approach might be applied in practice.