Research Area: Nuclear Hazards and Risks Researchers: Dr Peter Martin, Dr David Richards, Professor Tom Scott – University of Bristol Partners: Diamond Light Source, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Sellafield Ltd. Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Contact: peter.martin@bristol.ac.uk The Challenge The accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) in March 2011 represents […]
Registration for this event is via Eventbrite:
Eventbrite pageHealth issues accompanying radiation disasters are not limited to radiation exposure but multifaceted with changes in living and social environments. The most serious problem, during the early stages of the Fukushima accident, involved the health effects of evacuation, especially among elderly people. A shortage of human and material resources and the need to maintain an infrastructure were also problems.
In the medium and long term, there are various types of health issues to be considered, which include deterioration of the lifestyle diseases, psychological burden, decline in motor function, changes in medical system and treatment behavior, and increased nursing care. Many of these problems are considered as those which have arisen as a result of the lack of social support and changes in surrounding environment rather than thinking as an individual's own judgment or decision-making problem. Considering these various health risks in a well-balanced manner and taking long-term countermeasures are necessary after a nuclear accident.
Dr. Masaharu Tsubokura is a Specially Appointed Professor at the Department of Public Health in Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine. After the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in 2011, he worked with local municipalities in Fukushima, and played an important role in the establishment of the internal radiation exposure screening programs for the local residents.
He is also a member of the committee on radiation protection and public health in Minamisoma and Soma Cities, and has actively sought to provide radiation seminars to the public, to respond to public worries about the effects of radiation exposure on health.
Talk 1: Professor Masahuaru Tsubokura, Fukushima Medical University. Evaluating Secondary health issues from the Fukushima Daiichi accident
Talk 2: Dr Ian Waddington, Analytic Eye. The J Value and the NREFS project: Management of Nuclear Risk Issues: Environmental, Financial and Safety
Talk 3: Dr Peter Martin University of Bristol. Environmental radiation mapping and robotics fieldwork in Japan
Talk 4: Professor Philip Thomas, University of Bristol. Why the most risk averse people sometimes take the riskiest decisions
Spaces for this seminar are limited so please register via this short form:
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Dr. Masaharu Tsubokura is a Specially Appointed Professor at the Department of Public Health in Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine. After the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in 2011, he worked with local municipalities in Fukushima, and played an important role in the establishment of the internal radiation exposure screening programs for the local residents.
He is also a member of the committee on radiation protection and public health in Minamisoma and Soma Cities, and has actively sought to provide radiation seminars to the public, to respond to public worries about the effects of radiation exposure on health.
Professor Philip Thomas is Professor of Risk Management at the University of Bristol. He previously held a Chair in Engineering Development at City University, London. He has published over 100 articles on control, instrumentation, nuclear decommissioning, risk assessment and economics.
His work in risk analysis and management, and particularly the J Value project, has excited the interest of the national and international press; his findings have been covered by both broadsheets and the popular press
Dr Peter Martin is a Research Associate in the Interface Analysis Centre at the University of Bristol.
His research spans a broad spectrum of nuclear materials, radiation detection/characterisation and sensor-based systems. Dr Martin has conducted a significant amount of fieldwork in Japan and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant investigating the evolving distribution of contamination as well as applying novel micro-analysis techniques.
Dr Ian Waddington is a Senior Software Engineer at Analytic Eye. Ian leads on the software support for the J-Value project, an innovative tool that assesses the cost-effectiveness of safety schemes for a wide range of industries.
The J Value is a core part of the NREFS project: Management of Nuclear Risk Issues: Environmental, Financial and Safety that assessed mass evacuation after a large nuclear accident such as that at Fukushima Daiichi against gains in life expectancy.
Through the analysis of sub-mm particulate sourced from the environment, new research published today in Nature Communications by scientists from the University of Bristol, Diamond Light Source and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency has identified specific fallout particles from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the environment that give insights into the events that […]
Research Area: Nuclear Hazards and Risks PI: Dr Peter Martin Partners: Diamond Light Source, Japan Atomic Energy Agency Contact: peter.martin@bristol.ac.uk The Challenge Although the three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) were not damaged by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in 2011, the entire site was inundated by the ensuing 15m high […]
Dr Peter Martin of the Interface Analysis Centre at the University of Bristol has had his PhD thesis published by Springer in their series recognising outstanding PhD research. Peter’s PhD was nominated by the School of Physics for a Springer thesis, a prestigious and exclusive honour awarded to the best theses in physical sciences from […]
Professor Nick Pidgeon from Cardiff University will give the annual COGER public lecture on the topic of ‘nuclear power and environmental risk'.
The presentation reviews the history of academic research on nuclear power risk perceptions, highlighting the important role played by trust. It moves on to consider how views of nuclear in Britain have evolved over the past 15 years, drawing upon empirical evidence from national surveys and an in-depth study of communities around existing nuclear facilities.
Many people in Britain still hold only a ‘reluctant acceptance’ of nuclear power when placed in relation to their beliefs about both climate change and energy security. At local sites views are more complex, and dependent upon a number of factors (geography, trust, benefits, safety). While most local people expressed a familiarity and acceptance of a local station, anxieties always exist below the surface of discourse. The talk concludes with consideration of the impacts of the Fukushima accident on British public perceptions, as compared to those in Japan.
Register for free via the Eventbrite page here
Register on EventbriteNick Pidgeon is Professor of Environmental Risk and Director of the Understanding Risk Research Group at Cardiff University.
His research looks at public engagement, communication of, and decision-making for environmental and energy technology risks, including that of civilian nuclear power. Nick chaired the 2006 Cross-Party Parliamentary inquiry ‘Is a Cross-Party Consensus on Climate Change Possible – or Desirable?’ which recommended the setting up of the UK Climate Change Committee. He has been a science advisor at both the Department of Energy and Climate Change and at DEFRA, and is currently a member of Department of Transport’s Science Advisory Council.
He was awarded an MBE in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to climate change awareness and energy security policy, and has conducted numerous detailed studies of UK attitudes towards nuclear energy.
Main Image credit: EDF Energy
Unique synchrotron visualisation techniques offer new forensic insights into the provenance of radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident to understand the sequence of events related to the accident In April 2017, a joint team comprising the University of Bristol, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron […]
The University of Bristol recently hosted a three-day symposium that brought together researchers from the UK and Japan to discuss research into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident of 2011. The event was generously supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) London. The theme of the symposium was intentionally wide and […]
This conference will be hosted at the University of Bristol in the School of Physics.
Invited international speakers from JAEA, KURRI and Kyoto University.
View the Symposium programme here
Register on Eventbrite: jspsfdnpp2018.eventbrite.co.uk
View the conference poster here
The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) is Japan’s leading funding agency and is largely funded through annual subsidies from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Established in 1932, JSPS promotes the advancement of academic research in all disciplines from social sciences and humanities to natural sciences and engineering.
Additionally, JSPS administers a number of bilateral and multilateral programmes for scientific cooperation and exchange under memorandums of understanding concluded with its various counterpart foreign academic institutions around the world.
