Measurement and comparison of individual external doses of high-school students living in Japan, France, Poland and Belarus—the 'D-shuttle' project— - IOPscience

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accident, which began in March 2011, released a significant amount of radioactive substances, contaminating Fukushima and surrounding prefectures [1]. It is therefore essential to clarify the extent of this fallout and to assess its impact on the environment, foodstuffs, and on the residents in the affected areas. In Fukushima Prefecture, various studies of external as well as internal exposures have been conducted since 2011 [2, 3]. Particularly important in assessing the effect of radiation on the residents is to conduct personal dosimetry: one of the earliest reports was by Yoshida et al [4], who measured the individual doses of the medical staff dispatched from Nagasaki to Fukushima City from March to July 2011. They reported that the personal dose equivalent ${{H}_{\text{P}}}$ (10) ranged from 0.08 to 1.63 μSv h−1, significantly lower than the ambient dose equivalent rate H*(10) recorded by a monitoring station in Fukushima City which ranged from 0.86 to 12.34 μSv h−1.