A Study on the Environmental Restoration and Home Return from the Affected Areas of Nuclear Disaster

The emergency response in the nuclear accident is implemented through two phases, i.e. the urgent phase and the recovery phase. In the urgent phase of a general emergency, applying the principles of immediate action and conservative prediction, the precautionary evacuation should be implemented for people in the pre-established precautionary action zone (PAZ). Also, appropriate urgent protective actions, including the safety evacuation, indoor sheltering, stable iodine intake, food control, personal care and temporary relocation, should be implemented for people in the pre-established urgent protection zone (UPZ). In addition, urgent protective actions should be implemented for people in the hot spots where environmental monitoring and individual monitoring data exceed the operational intervention levels (OILs, including OIL1, OIL2, OIL3, OIL4, OIL7 and OIL8). In the recovery phase of a general emergency, it requires the remediation of released radioactive substances in the environment and the implementation of long-term recovery plans, in order to return the situation to existing exposure. The long-term plans of nuclear accident recovery must be worked out among the relevant personnel and organizations. Optimization analysis should be performed in accordance with the data on environmental monitoring, dose assessment, health assessment, decontamination measure, and waste disposal. Existing exposure must comply with international standards. The main objectives of this project are: (1) to collect information on the major international nuclear and radioactive accidents (including the Soviet Union Chernobyl, Japan Fukushima and Brazil Goiania accidents) regarding the recovery plans for dose assessment, environmental remediation, returning home from the evacuation, and lifting from the emergency control; (2) to collect data on the major nuclear and radioactive accidents regarding individual and environmental dose assessments, environmental clean-up criteria and methods, dose standards for the lifting of evacuations, and monitoring and tracking of foodstuffs; (3) to develop guidelines for the assessments of public and environmental doses, the criteria and methods of environmental decontaminations, and the dose standards of lifting evacuations and relocations. The Fukushima nuclear accident has been more than six years. Since the accident, the Japanese government has implemented several recovery plans - including the cooling down of nuclear reactors, the containing of radioactive substances, the intensive monitoring of radioactive contaminations, and the safety assurance of food, drinking water and on-site workers. Besides, radiation dose standards for the lifting of evacuations and relocations have been established. In addition, the transition from emergency exposure to existing exposure has been implemented. Due to the similar geographic and humanistic conditions between Taiwan and Japan, the recovery plans of Japan provide valuable references. After thorough review of Japanese recovery plans, we will develop guidelines and standards of nuclear emergency recovery measures that will be provided to the competent authorities in Taiwan.

Project ID:PC10702-0549
External Project ID:MOST107-2623-E182-001-NU