Experience and current issues with recovery management from the Fukushima accident

This paper describes the experiences of, and issues with, recovery management following the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The Fukushima accident has brought about socio-economic consequences with inevitable changes to daily life, as well as psychological effects. There is heightened concern amongst the population about the risk and effects of radiation at low doses. Experience has shown that the direct involvement of the affected population and local professionals is a decisive factor for management of the recovery phase. The radiological protection system of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) seems to be relevant to the recovery requirements of the Fukushima accident, although some problems remain in implementation. Reference levels could play a role in improving the situation by requiring an iterative optimisation process. The Fukushima experience indicated that a routine, top-down approach using radiological criteria alone was unable to deal with the complexity of the problems, and that stakeholder engagement should be explored. The technical knowledge gap between radiation experts and the public caused a lot of confusion. Experts should understand the ethical values attached to recovery, and ICRP should be more active in promoting trustworthy radiological protection advice.