Measures against radiation disaster/terrorism and radiation emergency medical assistance team

The probability of occurrence of radiological terrorism and disaster in Japan is not low. For this reason, preparations for coping with the occurrence of radiological terrorism should be an urgent issue. This paper describes the radiation medical system and the threat of radiological terrorism and disaster in Japan, and introduces the Radiation Emergency Medical Assistance Team (REMAT), one of the radiation accident/disaster response organizations at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences. Radiation exposure medical systems in Japan are constructed only in the location of nuclear facilities and adjacent prefectures. These medical systems have been developed only for the purpose of medical correspondence at the time of nuclear disaster, but preparations are not made by assuming measures against radiological terrorism. REMAT of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences is obligated to dispatch persons to the requesting prefecture to support radiation medical care in case of nuclear disaster or radiation accident. The designation of nuclear disaster orientated hospitals in each region, and the training of nuclear disaster medical staffing team were also started, but preparations are not enough. In addition to enhancing and strengthening experts, specialized agencies, and special forces dealing with radiological terrorism, it is essential to improve regional disaster management capacity and terrorism handling capacity. (A.O.)