The IAEA has delivered its first set of university lectures on radiation safety to students in Fukushima Prefecture, to assist in revitalizing the area.
The project was implemented in response to the accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in 2011.
"The lecture programme is designed to equip students with sound technical knowledge that will inspire and enable them to lead the future of Fukushima Prefecture, continuing the safe recovery of the environment," said Miroslav Pinak, Head of the IAEA Radiation and Monitoring Section, who led the team.
Fukushima Prefecture Today
It has been more than 10 years since the earthquake and Fukushima Daiichi accident that led to the evacuation of residents from their homes in Japan. Since then, local remediation efforts in combination with natural radioactive decay has significantly reduced radiation in the area. Much of the evacuated area of Fukushima Prefecture is habitable again. Today, children are playing in school playgrounds, hikers are using the forests and modern houses are built where access was previously restricted following the accident.
Meanwhile, radiation monitoring, remediation work and management of waste steadily continues, including long term arrangements for the contaminated soil and debris that has been collected and currently is stored at an interim storage facility in the prefecture.
IAEA Environmental Remediation Lectures
The lectures, based on the IAEA Safety Standards, covered the basics of radiation and radiation monitoring, environmental remediation and decontamination and radioactive waste management. Students also attended a workshop in which they used different devices to detect and measure radiation in various environmental samples such as soil and minerals.
"I would expect that the IAEA lectures will motivate Fukushima Prefecture university students to learn more about environmental radiation as a subject and the current state of environmental remediation in the prefecture," said Hiroshi Aoki, then Director General of the Fukushima Prefectural Centre for Environmental Creation.
"We hope the younger generation will learn from the collective knowledge and experience of the IAEA and apply this to the next steps for reconstruction and revitalization in Fukushima Prefecture, which would also contribute to international nuclear safety," added Kenichiro Tanaka, Director of the International Nuclear Cooperation Division at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The programme, a pilot exercise that took place at the end of 2024, was requested by the Government of Japan under a cooperation agreement with the IAEA that started in 2012 and will run until 2027. Under the agreement, the IAEA has been assisting Fukushima Prefecture in activities related to radiation monitoring, environmental remediation, decontamination and waste management, in line with IAEA safety standards.
"After the lectures I hope to be able to share accurate information about radiation with those around me, when the topic comes up on television or other media," said Hiroki Furuchi, a student at Higashi Nippon International University.
The feedback from this first course will be collected and used by the IAEA to further adapt the content to the prefecture's needs in line with IAEA Safety Standards, before returning to Fukushima to continue the programme at more universities in 2025.
