Reference Material: Radiation Exposure Data for Nuclear Industry Workers (FY 2018)
by Nishio Baku, CNIC Co-Director
The Nuclear Regulation Authority decided at a meeting on 27 February 2019 that the ‘Report on radiation management in nuclear facilities’ which they had released annually up until last year, would be discontinued from 2019. 1
This report compiled the complicated data received from each utility into worker exposure rates at each nuclear facility. However, NRA Chairman Fuketa stated at the aforementioned meeting that as the original data is available, the NRA report compilation is “basically meaningless.”2 This outrageous statement only increases doubts that the NRA is trying to make it more difficult to understand the situation regarding worker exposure to radiation.
This data is indeed necessary in our opinion, so we compiled the table below from data reported by each utility. 3 In compiling this table, the problem was the figure for the ‘commercial plant total.’ Although many workers work at multiple plants, and are exposed at each plant, the totals don’t reflect this. One worker is counted as two if he works at different plants. Even overlooking this problem, the total exposure dose for each of the 18 nuclear plants is rounded off to only 2 decimal places so simply adding them up is likely to give an inaccurate total.
When we made an enquiry with the Secretariat of the NRA, they said they had always used this calculation method. In the table we compiled, we had no choice but to use this method too, even though the calculated average exposure dose is different from the actual reality. Ironically, the NRA deciding to stop releasing their report enabled us to discover their slapdash calculation methods. We realised too late and should have been more careful. All we can ask is that you think of the total figures in the 2 PDF files below as a rough indication.
※1：https://www.nsr.go.jp/disclosure/committee/kisei/00000412.html (in Japanese)
※2：See the minutes of this meeting at www.nsr.go.jp/data/000263489.pdf (in Japanese) This discussion is recorded around p 30 – 38.
※3：https://www.nsr.go.jp/disclosure/law/KKAN/00000042.html (in Japanese)
