Holding-up radiation results (2)

 March 27, 2014

Withholding of radiation readings exposes gov't push for evacuees' return

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/perspectives/news/20140327p2a00m0na009000c.html 

Recent revelations that a Cabinet Office team delayed the release of radiation measurements from three Fukushima Prefecture areas, planning to release them with lower, recalculated results, have exposed a government push to have residents' return to nuclear disaster-hit areas.

Experts have raised questions about the government's move, suggesting that officials intended to send residents back to those areas from the outset and that they manipulated data to achieve that purpose.

The three areas -- the Miyakoji district of the city of Tamura, the village of Kawauchi and the village of Iitate -- remain subject to evacuation orders imposed after the 2011 Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant meltdowns. The government plans to lift these orders in the near future. According to one source familiar with the measurement process, the original radiation exposure readings from new, individual dosimeters were higher than expected, prompting the Cabinet Office team to withhold the results. Officials feared the higher readings would discourage residents from returning.

The measurements were taken in September last year by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) at the request of the Cabinet Office team, which was set up to support nuclear disaster victims. Team members initially intended to release the measurements during meetings of a Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) review panel between September and November last year. However, the measurements provided at an Oct. 3 meeting were not these results, but data from a fiscal 2012 survey using conventional dosimeters distributed to residents by six Fukushima Prefecture municipalities. The average radiation exposure doses in that survey were 0.2 to 0.7 millisieverts per year -- significantly lower than the estimates based on aerial surveys, which ranged from 0.7 to 2.9 millisieverts per year.

Yuichi Moriguchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo who serves as a member of the NRA panel, criticized the move by the Cabinet Office team, saying at the meeting that the data could mislead residents to think that the actual exposure doses would be one-fourth of the estimates based on aerial surveys. He warned that residents might suspect officials had underlying intentions. In response, Atsuo Tamura, an official with the Cabinet Office team, stated, "We wanted to show that the data for individual doses ranged in distribution, even within the same areas."

According to sources familiar with the matter, officials had initially expected that substantially low doses would be recorded even with the new dosimeters, which are capable of keeping track of exposure doses on an hourly basis, and had planned to release the results of the September 2013 measurements using the new dosimeters to highlight the safety of the areas. However, some of the results were higher than what they had expected.

When Moriguchi was shown the unreleased documents, which the Mainichi has acquired, he commented that the estimates based on the measurements using new dosimeters were "exactly what were expected."

"There seems to be no particular problem. I don't understand why they withheld the figures. At the meeting, I sensed that officials wanted to make radiation doses appear low through the use of individual dosimeters. Things have gone just as I suspected," he said.

Juichi Ide, an official with the Kawauchi Village Office, said, "I don't remember receiving any report on the survey results. We want to see the data because some residents allowed us to use their homes for the survey. If they withheld the results simply because the radiation doses were high, that would be shocking."

Most of the Cabinet Office team members are employees of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. They apparently had expected that the new dosimeters would serve as the trump card in promoting evacuees' return to their hometown.

According to sources familiar with the surveys, the Cabinet Office team commissioned the JAEA and NIRS to take measurements in June last year. Although the Cabinet Office team had originally requested a survey in six municipalities within areas preparing for the lifting of evacuation orders, the measurements were conducted in only three of the six municipalities in a rush to obtain results. The JAEA and the NIRS took measurements over several days in each of the three municipalities between early and mid-September last year and submitted the results to the Cabinet Office team in mid-October.

NIRS official Masami Torikoshi, who oversaw the survey, said workers were under pressure to quickly produce results ahead of the NRA review panel meeting. Tamura of the Cabinet Office team, however, denied having applied any pressure, saying, "Releasing the survey results at the NRA panel was just one option, and we didn't ask them to produce results in time for that." However, Tamura admitted that he had rushed to compile documents intended for release to submit them to the NRA panel. The panel is tasked with discussing measures for residents' return.

The government is promoting residents' return to areas where annual exposure doses are below 20 millisieverts, but it has yet to win their confidence -- a factor in its high expectations for dosimeter readings in line with the readings it had hoped to see. Polls have found that a majority of residents uphold radiation levels to be under 1 millisievert per year -- the government-designated limit for general members of the public.

While the government officially decided on March 10 that the evacuation order on the Miyakoji district of the city of Tamura would be lifted on April 1, a 72-year-old woman evacuated from the area told the Mainichi, "Even if I return, I won't be able to pick mountain vegetables. There are only few people who are rejoiced (over the decision). But it's hard for me to say, 'I don't want to return to my hometown.'"

The woman continued, "We see radiation measurements being conducted everywhere, but hardly any results. They probably show only what's convenient for them. I don't think the measurements are conducted in order to protect us."

March 27, 2014(Mainichi Japan)

see also :

March 25, 2014

Gov't team withholds high radiation data on three Fukushima sites

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140325p2a00m0na008000c.html