Activities of the Japan
Health Physics Society
Michiya Sasaki, Director of JHPS
22 June 2021

1Introduction
 The Japan Health Physics Society (JHPS) wasestablished in 1961 and joined the InternationalRadiation Protection Association (IRPA) in 1965.
 Member of Asian and Oceanic Association for Radiation
Protection (AOARP) since 2000.
 JHPS has a membership of about 700, including
professors, medical professionals, research scientists,engineers, regulators, students and citizens.
 In addition to the annual meeting and symposia, otheractivities related to research, investigation andestablishing standards, etc. are carried out by JHPS.
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Activity for research andinvestigation (1/2)
 For research and investigation, JHPS has two
types of group, named Ad-hoc committee(臨時委員会) and Research group(専門研究会).
 Ad-hoc group is led by a top-down approach(initiated by the board of directors), toinvestigate and responding to a specific topic.
 (active) Review Committee on Awareness and Practice ofRadiation Safety Culture Emergency Monitoring Review Committee
(past activities) Plutonium Contamination Accident
WG, Effective Dose and Practical Dosimetry
Committee, National Dosimetry Committee,National Dosimetry Committee, Low Dose Risk
Committee (Joint Committee with the JapaneseRadiation Research Society), …

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Activity for research andinvestigation (2/2)
 Research group (Task group) is led by abottom-up approach (initiated by member(s)),
to investigate and responding to a specific topic.
 (active) Radiation Protection of Tritium in theEnvironment
 Ensuring Reliability of Measurements for Radiation Control
Purposes in RI Facilities
 Handling of wastes containing
naturally occurring radioactive
materials from humanities andsocial sciences viewpoints
 Development of a code forestimating cancer risk associatedwith radiation exposure(past activities) …

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Emergency Monitoring Review
Committee (Ado-hoc committee)


The development of an emergency monitoring system in Japanthat reflects the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident isof utmost importance in the current situation where nuclear
power plants are being restarted.
The Committee treats the establishment of a screening system
for monitoring the thyroid gland of children and pregnant
women for radioactive iodine, and a system for prompt andeasy-to-understand communication of emergency monitoring
information.

https://www.nsr.go.jp/data/000330772.pdf

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Past activities (Ad-hoc committee)

 Plutonium intake accident

 The accident was occurred at the Plutonium Fuel Facilityof the Oarai Research and Development Center of JAEA
on 6 June 2017.
 This committee surveyed issues and extracted lessons
for radiological protection (Iwai et al 2019 J. Radiol.
Prot. 39 1092).

 Japanese Population Dose Estimation

 The radiation doses from natural radiation sources inJapan are reviewed using the latest knowledge.
 It was concluded that the arithmetic mean annual
effective doses from cosmic rays, terrestrial radiation,radon, and foodstuffs were estimated as 0.29, 0.33,0.59, and 0.99 mSv, respectively (Japanese populationdose from natural radiation is 2.2 mSv) (Omori et al2020 J. Radiol. Prot. 40(3) R99–R140).

©JAEA

Furukawa andShingaki(2012)6

Radiation Protection of Tritium in
the Environment (Research group)Contaminated water from the TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant is treated with a multinuclear removal, but
only tritium cannot be removed. This is a matter of growing
social concern.
The purpose of this group is to summarize the basic knowledge
on the properties of tritium, its behavior in the environment,
and its analysis methods, and to clarify the role of JHPS insolving the problems related to tritium, and to discuss realistic
approaches in accordance with the system of radiation
protection.
https://fukushima.j
aea.go.jp/info/pdf/20140311.pdf
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Activities of JHPS related to theaccident

JHPS set up a working group
to deal with radiation-related
Q&A and communicatedthrough its website.
“Issues and Recommendations
Associated with Radiation
Protection after Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
Disaster”
Presentation at the IRPA-13
congress(Glasgow on May 2012).

8Issues and Recommendations Associated withRadiation Protection after Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant Disaster Comprehensive recommendations onradiological protection by reviewing how
radiological protection measures after an
accident should be carried out on thebasis of concrete facts clearly describedin the investigative reports and opinions
collected at the JHPS symposia.
 P158: Communication to the public –response to foreign residents andoverseas countries
 Available at
http://www.jhps.or.jp/jhp/wpcontent/uploads/2014/12/JHPSissues_and_recommendationsrecom.pdf
9JHPS annual meeting in 2020 (Osaka, web)How should we solve the tritium problem? ～Radiation
Protection from International and Social Perspectives

Issue of scientific safety
1. The safety of the release of treated water containing tritium into theenvironment has been evaluated from various angles, but it is necessary tocontinue to confirm the safety through steady monitoring.
2. Safety is a matter of trust, and for this reason, it is necessary for experts toplay their roles faithfully.

3. Dissemination of primary data andinformation is important in terms oftrust, and collaboration with scientists
and communicators is necessary.

https://www.biowings.eu/news/dissemination/

4. From the perspective of foreign countries, the Japanese government is not
sufficiently providing more detailed information such as impact assessment,detailed action plans, and monitoring plans.
10Web meeting Webinar is a useful tool forcommunicating with people
overseas.
 Webinar hosted by KARP,
followed by a Zoom meeting withthe board of directors (3/11,4/16)
 Discussion on informationsharing during and after
emergency situation.
 Continuing communication(activities of research groups),
opening a contact point,
involving other Societies, …

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Panel discussion
Progress of decommissioning and treated water, monitoring and tritium
concentration, concerns in Korea, activities of JHPS.

1. How should we share therelevant information on
decommissioning at Fukushima
Daiichi NPS with each other for
better communication?
福島第一原子力発電所の廃炉に関する関連情報をどのように共有すれば、より良いコミュニケーションができるか？
2. What is expected regarding therole of RP experts?
RP専門家の役割について期待することは？

Panelist:Hiroko Yoshida (JHPS, Tohoku
Univ.)
Junichi Matsumoto (TEPCO)
Michio Aoyama (University ofTsukuba)
Michiaki Kai (JHPS, Nippon Bunri
Univ.)
Yong Hoon Jeong (KARP, KAIST)
Kyo-Youn Kim (KARP President,KAERI)
Hee-Seock Lee (KARP Vice
President, PAL/POSTECH)

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