2017 Volume 52 Issue 2 Pages 55-60
Aomori Prefecture accommodates nuclear power plants (NPP), their related nuclear facilities, and those under construction. It is necessary for them to satisfy the national safety standards and to be operational. After the Fukushima NPP accident, however, the general inhabitants became anxious and questioned their safety. Not only the general inhabitants but also the firefighting staff had doubts and/or concerns against nuclear power disasters and nuclear accidents. From the regional circumstances, the present study focused on understanding of radiation and its risk among the firefighting staff in Aomori Prefecture. In order to know how well they understand radiation, “a questionnaire survey about radiation” was carried out for the staff of five firefighting headquarters. Results of the questionnaire survey were compared between the staff of two firefighting headquarters where the nuclear facilities are located in their jurisdiction and the staff of three firefighting headquarters. Consequently, it was found that there was many firefighting staff with the incorrect understanding of radiation exposure. When analyzing some difference on recognition of radiation risks, there will be no significance no matter whether firefighters are working around nuclear facilities or not. In addition, most of them recognized that radiation effects would be evident even when the exposure was relatively low, and the main effect was assigned to “cancer” though the other effects were not well recognized. Basic knowledge on radiation and its risk have not yet been sufficiently understood among many participants.
