The health ministry recommends raising the maximum radiation-exposure limit for nuclear plant workers during an emergency from the current 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts.
The health ministry recommends raising the maximum radiation-exposure limit for nuclear plant workers during an emergency from the current 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts.
The proposed figure, contained in a report completed April 17 by a panel of experts at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, would then be precisely half that of the 500-millisievert limit set by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the maximum limit of exposure in emergencies was temporarily raised to 250 millisieverts for workers at the plant as an exceptional measure. Nine months later it was returned to 100 millisieverts.
The health ministry began considering raising the maximum radiation exposure limit for workers at all nuclear plants to 250 millisieverts following a suggestion by the Nuclear Regulation Authority in December. The new limit will be rubber-stamped after being examined by two ministry committees.
Currently, the health ministry also sets the upper limit of cumulative radiation exposure at 100 millisieverts over a five-year period in nonemergency cases.
It instructs plant operators not to exceed this limit for workers even when the accumulated exposures in emergency and nonemergency cases are combined.