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Whole-body counter measurements of residents of Fukushima Prefecture have been extensively performed after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011. These measurements have demonstrated that the levels of internal contamination with radioactive cesium (Cs and Cs) in the residents are very low. This article provides an overview of and lessons learned from these whole-body counter measurements with emphasis on the technical problems encountered, and it discusses the effective use of whole-body counters for assessing the internal thyroid doses of individuals when direct measurements of I in the thyroid are difficult or impossible to implement for the total affected population in a short time after a nuclear reactor accident. The application of this dose reconstruction method requires determining the intake ratio of I to cesium isotopes at appropriate times and considers the short biological half-lives of cesium isotopes, in particular for children.

The authors describe the results of direct measurements made on three persons who stayed in Tokai-mura, a village located ∼110 km south of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), during the arrival of significant radioactive plumes released from the FDNPS as a consequence of the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami/FDNPS accident in March 2011. These measurements were made using a NaI(Tl) spectrometer and a whole-body counter shortly after the accident. Their thyroid equivalent doses ((131)I) were estimated to be 0.9-1.4 mSv under the assumption of acute intake via inhalation on 15 March, when the first significant release event was observed. Although greatly depending on the physicochemical form of iodine, the intake amount ratios of (131)I to (137)Cs for the three subjects were calculated as 2.7-3.7, which were much smaller than the radioactivity ratio (7.8) found in air sampling at the same site., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Radiation workers engaging in the fabrication of MOX fuels at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency-Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories are exposed to neutrons. Accordingly, thermoluminescent albedo dosemeters (TLADs) are used for individual neutron dosimetry. Because dose estimation using TLADs is susceptible to variation of the neutron energy spectrum, the authors have provided TLADs incorporating solid-state nuclear tracks detectors (SSNTDs) to selected workers who are routinely exposed to neutrons and have continued analysis of the relationship between the SSNTD and the TLAD (T/R(f)) over the past 6 y from 2004 to 2009. Consequently, the T/R(f) value in each year was less than the data during 1991-1993, although the neutron spectra had not changed since then. This decrease of the T/R(f) implies that the ratio of operation time nearby gloveboxes and the total work time has decreased.

At the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Engineering Laboratories of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), small pieces of indium foil incorporated into personal dosemeters have been used for personnel screening in criticality accidents. Irradiation tests of the badges were performed using the SILENE reactor to verify the calibration of the indium activation that had been made in the 1980s and to recalibrate them for simulated criticalities that would be the most likely to occur in the solution process line. In addition, Monte Carlo calculations of the indium activation using the badge model were also made to complement the spectral dependence. The results lead to a screening level of 15 kcpm being determined that corresponds to a total dose of 0.25 Gy, which is also applicable in posterior-anterior exposure. The recalibration based on the latest study will provide a sounder basis for the screening procedure in the event of a criticality accident.

A new 241Am lung monitoring system without shielding was devised by using an imaging plate system. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's realistic torso phantom containing a 241Am lung was covered by imaging plates sealed in lightproof bags. The imaging plate system displayed 241Am lung images characteristic of the lung shape of the torso phantom. The imaging plate system's lower detection limits of 14 Bq for 60 min exposure and 6 Bq for 300 min were the same levels as those of the phoswich detectors and the germanium detectors placed in shielded rooms. The imaging plate system for 60 min exposure detected about 2% of the annual limit of 740 Bq for 241Am inhalation. A lung monitoring system using imaging plates is applicable for 241Am lung monitoring.

A new neutron-measuring instrument that is intended to measure a neutron personal dose equivalent, H(p)(10) was developed. This instrument is composed of two parts: (1) a conventional moderator-based neutron dose equivalent meter and (2) a neutron shield made of borated polyethylene, which covers a backward hemisphere to adjust the angular dependence. The whole design was determined on the basis of MCNP calculations so as to have response characteristics that would generally match both the energy and angular dependencies of H(p)(10). This new instrument will be a great help in assessing the reference values of neutron H(p)(10) during field testing of personal neutron dosemeters in workplaces and also in interpreting their readings.

The authors carried out an operational study that compared the use of TLD albedo dosemeters and solid state nuclear tracks detector in plutonium environments of Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, Tokai Works. A selected group of workers engaged in the fabrication process of MOX (Plutonium-Uranium mixed oxide) fuel wore both TLD albedo dosemeters and solid state nuclear tracks detectors. The TL readings were generally proportional to the counted etch-pits, and thus the dose equivalent results obtained from TLD albedo dosemeter agreed with those from solid state nuclear tracks detector within a factor of 1.5. This result indicates that, in the workplaces of the MOX fuel plants, the neutron spectrum remained almost constant in terms of time and space, and the appropriate range of field-specific correction with spectrum variations was small in albedo dosimetry.