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Japan Radiation Medicine

Working Group email address:  ***@***.***

Members

AlMac99 bdfmchuv Bea Alvarez bevcorwin brandongraham Craig Vanderwagen
duane.caneva Emi Kiyota GBrozowski James Miller Kathy Gilbeaux leiderman
Mark Ryan mdmcdonald MichelSPawlowski Patrick Young rasmussene Richard Walden
RJ Danzig safecast safecastdotorg Samuel Bendett Susan Fassig Tomo
UserTest WVISecurity Yuki Karakawa

Email address for group

radiation-medicine@m.resiliencesystem.org

Plan to flood Fukushima reactor could cause new blast, experts warn

 

Experts have warned of a potentially dangerous radiation leak if Japanproceeds with plans to flood a damaged reactor containment vessel at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The facility's operator has admitted uranium fuel rods in the No 1 reactor partially melted after being fully exposed because of the 11 March tsunami.

In Japan's Nuclear Nexus, Safety is Left Out

April 26, 2011

The 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Pacific Earthquake and the Seismic Damage to the NPPs

April 4, 2011 - Summary

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA)

Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES)

(see attachment below - 76 page PDF report)

Local Marines Deploy to Japan

March 31, 2011

On Wednesday, a 155-person Initial Response Force comprised of Marines
from Naval Support Facility Indian Head, Maryland, was directed to
deploy to Yokota, Japan, according to Defense Department spokeswoman
Leslie Hull-Ryde.

The force "is specifically trained in areas of chemical, biological,
radiological, nuclear and high yield explosion operations," she said.
"... the IRF can provide capabilities for monitoring support for agent
detection and identification; casualty search, rescue, and personnel
decontamination; and emergency medical care and stabilization of
contaminated personnel." The Marines will arrive in Japan as early as
Friday, she said.

A French nuclear group, Areva, has sent five specialists who are experts
in treating contaminated water, the group said Wednesday.

And the U.S. Department of Energy deployed about 40 people and more than
17,000 pounds of equipment to Japan to help with the crisis, said Peter
Lyons, the department's acting assistant secretary for nuclear energy.

IEEE - USA Position Statement: Documenting Cumulative Radiation Exposure in the EHR

submitted by Thomas Jepsen

IEEE-USA believes that maintaining an accurate record of a patient’s cumulative exposure to various types of radiation is an important component of a patient’s health profile, and can play a significant role in making healthcare decisions.  Radiation exposure can come from a number of sources, both natural and manmade, over the lifetime of the individual;  medical procedures such as X-rays, Computed Tomography (CT)  scans, and isotope radiation therapy contribute significant radiation  dosages. Therefore, it is essential that a means be provided to document aggregate exposure from multiple sources in a format that is meaningful to healthcare practitioners.  In support these objectives, IEEE-USA recommends the following:

1)Health Level Seven (HL7) should add the appropriate "dose object" radiation parameters, as defined in the IHE Radiology Technical Framework Supplement, Radiation Exposure Monitoring (REM), to HL7/CDA format longitudinal electronic health records (EHRs) in order to create a longitudinal record of a patient's exposure to radiation as a result of medical procedures.

2)The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) should make radiation dose monitoring a part of meaningful use criteria for EHRs.

Japan Mulls Strictly Enforcing Evacuation Zone Near Plant

AP - by Elaine Kurtenbach and Mari Yamaguchi - April 20, 2011

TOKYO -- Japanese authorities may for the first time strictly enforce their evacuation zone around a crippled nuclear plant, citing concerns Wednesday over radiation risks for residents returning to check on their homes.

About 70,000-80,000 people were living in the 10 towns and villages within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked its power and cooling systems, setting off the worst nuclear power crisis since the 1986 catastrophe at Chernobyl.

Virtually all of the residents left when the government ordered the area evacuated on March 12, but some occasionally have returned and police cannot legally block them. There currently is no penalty for violating the zone.

"We are considering setting up 'caution areas' as an option for effectively limiting entry" to the zone, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan will meet with local officials and evacuees to discuss the plans during a visit to the affected region Thursday, Edano said.

iPhone Geiger Counter Would Benefit Japan, Needs Kickstarter Love

TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) - by Kelly Hodgkins - April 15, 2011

The folks at RDTN have organized a Kickstarter project to fund the development and deployment of radiation detectors in Japan. The project uses an iPhone hacked to work with a variety of radiation detectors. The radiation units (shown here) will be sent into the field and used to collect data on radiation contamination in the Tsunami-ravaged country.

Since the detectors use an iPhone, they are easy for the average person with minimal technical knowledge to operate. Japanese residents who accept these counters are required to take readings eight to ten times a day and report their data back to RDTN's website. The readings are compiled by RDTN and made accessible to non-profit organizations, governments and scientists. The first sensor was deployed on April 14 and is already reporting back information to RDTN. You can view these readings and additional future readings on RDTN's twitter account (@RDTNprobes).

Robot in Japanese Reactors Detects High Radiation

AP - AOL News - by Mari Yamaguchi - April 18, 2011

TOKYO -- Readings Monday from robots that entered two crippled buildings at Japan's tsunami-flooded nuclear plant for the first time in more than a month displayed a harsh environment still too radioactive for workers to enter.

Nuclear officials said the radiation data for Unit 1 and Unit 3 at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi plant - collected by U.S.-made robots that look like drafting lamps on treads - do not alter plans for stabilizing the complex by year's end under a "road map" released by the plant operator Sunday.

With the public growing increasingly frustrated at the slow response to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crises, parliament grilled Prime Minister Naoto Kan and officials from plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.

"You should be bowing your head in apology. You clearly have no leadership at all," Masashi Waki, a lawmaker from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, shouted at Kan.

"I am sincerely apologizing for what has happened," Kan said, stressing that the government was doing all it could to handle the unprecedented disasters.

TEPCO's president, Masataka Shimizu, looked visibly ill at ease as lawmakers heckled and taunted him.

Radioactivity Rises in Sea Off Japan Nuclear Plant

AP - by Mari Yamaguchi - April 16, 2011

TOKYO -- Levels of radioactivity have risen sharply in seawater near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, signaling the possibility of new leaks at the facility, the government said Saturday.

The announcement came after a magnitude-5.9 earthquake jolted Japan on Saturday morning, hours after the country's nuclear safety agency ordered plant operators to beef up their quake preparedness systems to prevent a recurrence of the nuclear crisis.

There were no reports of damage from the earthquake, and there was no risk of a tsunami similar to the one that struck the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant March 11 after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake, causing Japan's worst-ever nuclear plant disaster.

Since the tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems, workers have been spraying massive amounts of water on the overheated reactors. Some of that water, contaminated with radiation, leaked into the Pacific. Plant officials said they plugged that leak on April 5 and radiation levels in the sea dropped.

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