Report on the Decontamination Site Tour in Fukushima Prefecture

In the frame of Japanese-Croatian scientific-technical cooperation, our team visited Minamisoma city in Fukushima prefecture, Japan on Dec 3, 2012. The visit was organized for the foreign participants at the 8th International Workshop on Ionizing Radiation Monitoring held in Oarai, Japan. Minamisoma city is about 25 kilometres north from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The city belonged to the evacuation zone and most of the residents were forced to leave immediately after the accident in 2011. In spring 2012 most of the people were able to return to their homes since dose rates were less than 20 mSv/y, the standard that Japanese government set as a temporary maximum radiation limit. Recently, a project of 'Decontaminating the Living Areas in Minamisoma City' was established. Enormous job has been carried out at the decontamination site (washing the houses, collection of soil, cutting trees, collecting the waste, etc). However, according to some experts, the cost-benefit effect of applied radiation protection principle is questionable. Our team with other participants visited one decontamination site and one temporary waste disposal site. After that a Satellite Meeting entitled 'What can be done for the reconstruction of Fukushima' was organized. In the discussion special attention was given to the public information and communication considering well known fear from radiation and its influence to the future of nuclear power program.(author)