Seven years after the earthquake disaster. Reconstruction and radiation technology

For about one month immediately after the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011, the author gave advice from a specialist point of view at the 'Nuclear Accident Consultation Desk' in Miyagi Prefectural Government. From that experience, the author knew that the general public has many misunderstandings about radiation, and thought that the spread of basic knowledge on radiation was an urgent issue to prevent misinformation. For the purpose of preparing related pamphlets, the authors conducted a questionnaire survey for parents and children at elementary schools in Fukushima Prefecture. Among the subjects they wanted to know with priority, the most popular one was 'effects of future exposure.' 'Effects from food and drinking water' and 'methods for protecting children in everyday life' followed. Based on the questionnaire results, the authors prepared pamphlets for parents and for children (lower grades and upper grades) in a Q&A format. They revised these pamphlets based on the feedback from evaluation on the prototype pamphlets. The examples of explanation are as follows: (1) specific food names for internal exposure due to food, (2) for the reports that tumors were found in children through thyroid examination, reply was given like that the possibility of effects of the nuclear accident was low, (3) current state and countermeasures for the water contaminated with radioactive substances, and (4) examples of effective use of radiation in daily life. They also prepared a pamphlet for the elderly. In the future, it will be important to study and update the contents of the pamphlets. (A.O.)