Individual external dose monitoring of all citizens of Date City by passive dosimeter 5 to 51 months after the Fukushima NPP accident (series): II. Prediction of lifetime additional effective dose and evaluating the effect of decontamination on individual dose

Abstract

In the first paper of this series, we showed that the ratio c of individual dose to ambient dose did not change with time in Date City, Fukushima Prefecture, after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. The purpose of the present paper, the second in a series, is to estimate the lifetime doses of the Date City residents, based on continuous glass badge monitoring data, extrapolated by means of the ambient-dose-rate reduction function obtained from the airborne monitoring data. As a result, we found that the external exposure contribution to the mean additional lifetime dose of residents living in Date City is not expected to exceed 18 mSv. In addition, effects of decontamination on the reduction of individual doses were not evident. This method of combining individual doses and the ambient doses, as developed in this study, has made it possible to predict with reasonable certainty the lifetime doses of residents who continue to live in this radiologically contaminated area.