First Cancer Case Confirmed From Fukushima Cleanup (nhk.or.jp)

AmiMoJo writes: Japan's labor ministry has confirmed the first cancer case related to work at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Following on from reports of elevated levels of child cancer and 1,600 civilians deaths from the evacuation, this is the first time that one of the 44,000 people involved in the clean up operation has been diagnosed with cancer resulting directly from the accident. The worker was involved in recovery and cleanup efforts at the plant after it suffered a meltdown in March, 2011. He was in his late 30s at the time, and has been diagnosed with leukemia. The ministry has approved workers' compensation. Radiation exposure has been linked to the onset of leukemia.

Comments

Criteria from TFA

[Anonymous Coward]

It is important to know their criteria for the decision, not just the decision itself.
From TFA:
"Ministry experts determined that he was likely to have contracted leukemia following cleanup work at Fukushima Daiichi. They found he had been exposed to a total of 19.8 millisieverts of radiation from his work at various plants. He was exposed to 15.7 millisieverts at the Fukushima plant.

Compensation is granted if a nuclear power plant worker has been exposed to annual radiation of 5 milliseverts and has developed cancer more than a year afterward."

Re:Related?

[hcs_$reboot]

w

According to TEPCO, seven TEPCO workers were exposed to radiation over the limit of 100 millisievert by the morning of 20 March

And it's "According to Tepco" ....

Re:Atty the Atom says...

[Mashiki]

Well it is, as long as you can be allowed to upgrade/replace aging reactors and not blocked by environmentalists and anti-nuke protesters from building a safer replacement.

Re:Related?

[AmiMoJo]

That is a gross oversimplification. Receiving a dose of 200uSv via exposure to something like x-rays is very different to being exposed to 200uSv that includes particulate matter that will accumulate inside the body. The former is a one time "hit", the latter is much more likely to lead to cancer because the material can sit inside the body slowly damaging DNA.

Sadly that XKCD chart and nonsense like the "banana equivalent dose" have spread a lot of misinformation about this. Not all types of radiation exposure are equal.