New NRA guidelines

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012

N-accident zones set at 30-km radius / NRA decides to use IAEA standards

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T121031003759.htm

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Nuclear Regulation Authority on Wednesday issued new guidelines to establish 30-kilometer-radius zones in which intensive disaster-prevention measures will be taken in preparation for a serious nuclear accident.

About 4.8 million people in 135 municipalities are in these zones and will need particular protection under the new guidelines. Previously, only 45 municipalities were affected.

In a simulation released by the NRA on Oct. 24, the spread of radioactive substances from the nation's nuclear power plants was recorded beyond the 30-kilometer radius in some cases.

The NRA, however, decided not to expand the key zones beyond the 30-kilometer mark, sticking to the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Within this year, the NRA will set such standards as radiation levels to determine at what level it would be necessary to evacuate residents.

Local governments, which could be affected in a nuclear plant disaster, will draw up disaster-prevention plans by the end of March.

The new guidelines are mostly in line with a draft the authority presented on Oct. 3.

However, the NRA withdrew a plan to distribute stable iodine pills to households within 50 kilometers from nuclear plants. The pills are to prevent thyroid glands from internal exposure to radiation. The authority will reconsider how to distribute the pills and the dosage.

The plan was withdrawn because some local governments questioned the reasons behind distributing the pills over such a large area, and the NRA itself felt it necessary to reexamine steps to prevent the pills from being used incorrectly and to determine the side effects.

The NRA will first issue instructions on the use of the pills and then notify medical staff in affected areas.

It also emphasized that over the mid- and long-term, it was important to continue decontamination work to deal with the crisis at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and provide proper health care for nearby residents.

In its simulation of the spread of radioactive substances, radiation exposure levels reached 100 millisieverts in seven days beyond a radius of 30 kilometers from four nuclear power plants, including the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture.

The NRA said these results are for worst-case scenarios and are used only for reference.

After the onset of the crisis at the Fukushima plant after the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, many inpatients died at Futaba Hospital in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, because evacuation was delayed.

Taking this lesson to heart, the NRA called for more effective steps by assuming all hospital patients should be evacuated.

Each local government affected will compile disaster-prevention plans based on the NRA's new guidelines, the simulation results and other data by the end of March.

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Main points of new guidelines

-- Zone of key areas for disaster-prevention measures is expanded to a 30-kilometer radius around nuclear power plants from the current radius of eight to 10 kilometers.

-- Residents living within a five-kilometer radius will be asked to immediately evacuate when a severe nuclear accident is expected.

-- Paying consideration to potential health effects on residents in areas affected by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, proper measures should be taken to care for them.

-- Instructions for use of stable iodine pills will be decided by the NRA, which will notify relevant local medical staffs.

Emergency areas tripled to 30 km around plants

Nuke regulator sets wider safety zones

Kyodo

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121101a1.html

The Nuclear Regulation Authority set new guidelines Wednesday for fallout disaster mitigation measures, expanding the distance where special preparations are required to 30 km from atomic power plants.

While details need to be fleshed out, such as specific criteria for evacuation, the guidelines were revised to meet international standards and rewritten in plain language to be more easily understood, the NRA said. The NRA's predecessor was harshly criticized over its handling of the Fukushima crisis.

Based on the guidelines and other information provided by the NRA, local governments hosting nuclear plants and those on the periphery are expected to craft their own disaster mitigation plans and set the scope of the emergency zones by March.

"Compiling the guidelines is not the end of the work. . . . The guidelines will prove useful after (disaster mitigation) plans are created and drills are held," NRA Commissioner Kayoko Nakamura said, adding the guidelines should be constantly reviewed.

The existence of disaster mitigation plans is not a legal requirement when resuming operation of nuclear reactors, but NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka has said it will be difficult for reactors to be brought back online unless local governments devise plans in line with the new guidelines.

The most notable change is that emergency zones have been widened to a 30-km radius around each nuclear plant, from 10 km. A "precautionary action zone" extends about 5 km from a plant and residents will evacuate based on certain plant conditions before a radioactive release starts, while an "urgent protective action planning zone" covers a radius of about 30 km and residents will evacuate depending on radiation levels or other information.

Recently announced projections for the spread of radiation showed that points more than 30 km away from some nuclear plants could see radiation levels reach 100 millisieverts a week into a meltdown crisis, a level where evacuation is recommended. Tanaka has said 30 km is enough for emergency zones, but local governments may expand the zones further.

Due to the expansion of the zones, the number of prefectures that include such areas will increase to 21 from 15. The number of people who could be affected will total 4.8 million.

The NRA has to set criteria for starting evacuations and taking other protective action to enable swift decision-making, but the guidelines state it plans to establish them by the end of this year.

NRA Commissioner Toyoshi Fuketa stressed the need to hold substantial discussions on the issue, saying the criteria are "extremely important to make the guidelines workable."

Other issues that need to be studied include whether to distribute iodine tablets in advance to prevent residents from developing thyroid cancer.