For information only – not an official document
UNIS/OUS/430
17 July 2022
VIENNA, 17 July (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) – A series of meetings to discuss the latest UN findings on the public exposure and human health effects from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station accident, begins Tuesday, July 19, in Japan.
A team of specialists from the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), which undertook the independent study, will hold four days of meetings with the public, press, scientists, students, government and industry officials to present and discuss its latest report (UNSCEAR 2020/2021 Report, annex B)[1],[2].
“Because of the COVID-19 pandemic this is the first opportunity we have had to present our findings in Japan,” said Gillian Hirth, past UNSCEAR Chair of the sixty-sixth to sixty-eight sessions. “The delay, however has provided a window for a full assessment of the report and we are looking forward to our discussions.”
The UNSCEAR report was presented to the UN General Assembly in October 2021 based on information available to the end of 2019. It updates UNSCEARs initial 2013 assessment relating to the levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the accident[3] which was based on limited data available at the time, said Gillian Hirth.
“The dose estimates are more realistic and robust with uncertainties quantified,” the report says. “They are unlikely to change significantly in the foreseeable future.” The report concludes that “future discernible radiation-induced cancer excess in the public is unlikely, including the sensitive groups exposed in childhood, given the generally low doses.”
Among events on the UNSCEAR outreach mission to Japan calendar will be a public forum in Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture (21 July), meetings with regional and municipal officials, and university students in Tokyo and the prefecture.
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About UNSCEAR
The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), established in 1955 by the United Nations General Assembly, is mandated to undertake broad reviews of the sources of ionizing radiation and the effects on human health and the environment. Its assessments provide a scientific foundation for governments and United Nations agencies to formulate standards and programmes for protection against ionizing radiation (see www.unscear.org).
More than 30 leading scientists worked on the study analyzing the effects of radiation exposure following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station since the UNSCEAR 2013 Report. The report they prepared was reviewed for technical and scientific quality by the Committee’s 27 Member States, 4 observer States and 12 international organizations at their sixty-seventh annual session in November 2020 and the advanced report published in March 2021. All scientists had to declare any conflict of interest related to their participation in the assessment (see 東電福島第一原子力発電所事故 (unscear.org).
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For further information, contact:
UNSCEAR secretariat Tel: +43 1 26060-4122
Email: unscear[at]unscear.org
