Thirty-eight percent of emergency personnel who worked in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster received radiation doses exceeding the 1-milliseivert annual safety level for ordinary people, a survey showed.
Thirty-eight percent of emergency personnel who worked in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster received radiation doses exceeding the 1-milliseivert annual safety level for ordinary people, a survey showed.
But none of 167 police officers and firefighters or the 2,800 members of the Self-Defense Forces surveyed received a dose of 100 millisieverts, the acceptable limit for nuclear plant employees and emergency workers.
In fact, the highest dose found in the survey was 10.8 millisieverts for an SDF serviceman, according to the Cabinet Office’s survey released on Oct. 26.
The survey is the first to disclose the actual values of radiation exposure among those who worked outside the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck the plant on March 11, 2011, a Cabinet Office official said.
The surveyed workers were engaged in evacuation, rescue and cargo transfer operations within 20 kilometers of the nuclear plant between March 12 and 31 that year.
According to the findings, 62 percent of the surveyed workers were exposed to less than 1 millisievert of radiation during the period.
Nineteen percent received a radiation dose of between 1 millisievert and 2 millisieverts, and 5 percent were exposed to 5 millisieverts or higher.
Those exposed to at least 5 millisieverts were all SDF personnel, whose work included dismantling off-site structures and setting up camp for other activities.
The Fukushima prefectural government has estimated the average radiation exposure level for local residents at 0.8 millisievert and a maximum dose of 25 millisieverts.
Employees of Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the nuclear plant, received an average dose of 21.57 millisieverts in March 2011, with one worker exposed to a maximum 670.36 millisieverts in the month.
Firefighters who dumped water on the site to cool the damaged reactors were exposed to up to 29.8 millisieverts of radiation, according to the measurements.