NRA will help local governements

NRA to draw up model for local govts

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T121101003780.htm 

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Nuclear Regulation Authority will create a template for local governments to help them to compile their respective regional nuclear disaster plans, according to its chairman.

NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said Wednesday the NRA will compile the manual this month based on the NRA's new nuclear disaster guidelines, which were adopted the same day.

The nation's nuclear authority decided to create the template because many local governments are compiling nuclear disaster plans for the first time, or will have to drastically revise the plans they have. Also, areas where key measures will be implemented were largely expanded.

The NRA will help local governments draw up their respective plans through direct contact with them. Many local governments have asked the central government for assistance with compiling the plans.

At a press conference, Tanaka said: "It's important to make the regional disaster-prevention plans feasible. We'll offer assistance to the municipal governments."

In making the template, the NRA will pick some model cases for prefectural and municipal governments.

The NRA's secretariat, the Cabinet Office and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will work with selected local governments to flesh out details such as actual evacuation methods and temporary evacuation sites.

As a pillar of the new guidelines, zones in which intensive measures would be taken in preparation for a nuclear disaster were expanded to a 30-kilometer radius around nuclear plants.

The new zones cover about 4.8 million people in 135 municipalities near nuclear plants.

A recent simulation of how radioactive substances would spread in the event of a worst-case nuclear disaster showed that some places outside the 30-kilometer zones could be severely polluted.

But the NRA stressed that the results were based on a worst-case scenario. Based on the International Atomic Energy Agency's standards, the NRA decided there was no need to further expand the key areas.

Regarding stable iodine pills for protecting people's thyroid glands from the effects of internal radiation exposure, the NRA this time withdrew its plan, which was included in the draft of the guidelines, to distribute such pills to households within a 50-kilometer-radius area.

The NRA now says it will carefully examine how to distribute iodine pills and in what dosages, after discussing how to prevent improper intake of the pills and measures to deal with side effects.

After the NRA decides what dosages are appropriate it will notify medical personnel in local areas.

It also will decide by the end of this year on what radiation levels would require that residents be evacuated, as well as other antidisaster standards.

The local governments will compile their regional disaster management plans by the end of March next year based on the new guidelines and the results of the NRA's simulation of radioactive-substance dispersal.