Communicating Risk with PLT
Naoko Kakuta, ERICKeiichi Sato, TUAT
Our Study for FoR
• Interviewed 11 experts on risk communication.
• Tried out activities on risks: Crossroads; Negotiate Killer.
• Translated Focus on Risk.• Developed guidelines: scientific literacy,
citizenship, thinking skills and concerns on social issues such as risk.
Opinion Spectrum
• 1mSv/y Ordinary people’s annual limit(Japan by law*)
• 5mSv/y Chernobyl Evacuation Area
• 5.2mSv/y Specialists entering to a controlled area*
• 1-20mSv/y After the accident being controlled(ICRP)
• 20-100mSv/y Emergency after the accident(ICRP)
• 50mSv/y Radiation wokers* +zone of no return
• 100mSv Dr. Yamashita and MEXT
Communicating Nuke Risk
Key Stages for Communication
• Risk Perception• Accidents Information• Risk Assessment• Risk Reduction• Risk Management
Principles for Communication
• Open, transparency• Multidirectional• Process of participation
• Public perception• Societal values and ethics• Scientific judgment• Political and economic factors
Levels of Radiation – MEXT textbook
8
Too Famous Fukushima
Level of Contamination of Schools
Calculation: Everybody learned
• X μSv/h × 24hours × 365days = Y μSv/y• YμSv/y=1/1000 Y mSv/y• 1mSv/y=0.1μSv/h
• 1mSv/y is a limit set for ordinary people for ordinary time.
• Japanese Government extended the limit to 20mSv/y for children at school in Fukushima.
• Schools with 2.28μSv/h and over are limited for outside activities down to three hours a day.
Where should be the line?
1mSv/年 5mSv/年 5.2msv/年 20mSv/年 20mSv/年 50mSv/年 100mSv/年日本の基準(平時 ) 一般公衆
放射線管理区域 * 放射線業務従事者 **
Japan Ordinary peopleControlled Area Special Worker
ICRP 緊急時収束後の一般公衆のための安全基準値 緊急時被ばく状況
After the accident Immediately after the accident
チェルノブイリ避難区域基準Chernobyl Evacuation Zone
Barriers
• Risk perception control before the accidents.• “Science” was used to accept 100mSv.• “No epidemic proof exist” was the reason for
“Safe” level of exposure. Japanese Merchants of Doubt
• “No more nukes” decision at the end of August, but “No Nukes Here and Now”went on. no celebration, no change of strategies, just “No Nukes” forever
Risk perception controls
• “Nukes are safe” PRs on medias.• Nukes poster design contests, essay contests
at schools.• Subsidies and budgets for municipal
governments of nuclear plants.• Employments for the plants.
• Total money put into these?
$98 billion !
• Since 1974, promotion of power resources development tax was used to cover all these subsidies for nukes. The tax was paid by the power companies.
• Power companies also donate money for contests, festivals and “risk communications”, besides for this tax. Which adds up to $31 billion over 40 years of nukes history.
Is 20mSv/y really safe?
• Zoning started for the refugees:– Unlivable for many years, zone of no return, over
50 mSv/y, compensation of $60,000 for 5 years.– Permitted for visits only, between 20-50mSv/y.– After decontamination of this 20mSv and under
zone, people are allowed to come back.
– Back or not, more than 40,000 people will be kept on the edge.
25000 cannot return to their home.
Zone of over 50msv/y
So, who cares for these refugees?
• Actually the refugees are the one who’s been gasping down all these nukes money. These municipalities are still poor? Rubbish!
• Another barriers for dialogue….
Why is this?
• Doubt? Fear? Distrust? Envy?
• Lack of self confidence• Lack of experience of cooperation• Too big for dialogue
• So, just this “anti” type of movements continue.
Where are we?
• Fatigue• Flight• Focusless• Frail• Forgetful• Futureless• Lack of experience of risk communication.
Teaching Materials Guidelines
• Understanding the nature of science, including scientific uncertainty, controversial etc.
• “Society and Risk” --Learning from the past, focusing on our common future
• Action Orientation* • Emphasis on skills building*– *NAAEE
Shared Vision for the Future
• We have only one Earth.• We all want to survive, us human, as well as
other living things.
• We have to learn to live together.• We have to learn to cooperate.
• http://www.globalcommunity.org/flash/wombat.shtml