The government plans to strengthen measures against thefts of radioactive materials at such places as hospitals and research institutes in an effort to prevent terrorist use of such materials, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The move is part of the government's aim to raise the level of Japan's anti-terrorism measures to international standards with an eye on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The government seeks to make these new measures mandatory around September 2019 by enacting relevant laws and regulations.
Regulations on such sites as nuclear power plants and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities in Japan have been beefed up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and currently access to these sites is strictly limited to related personnel.
However, other facilities such as hospitals and research organizations are only required to take such measures as locking the entrance to storage sites for radioactive materials.
New beefed-up protection measures will be imposed on about 500 facilities, including hospitals and research institutes, which possess specified radioisotopes that emit strong radiation that may have serious health effects, according to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA). These radioactive materials are used for such purposes as medical treatment and quality checks.
Under new measures, these sites will be obliged to take specific measures such as installing security cameras and sensors to detect suspicious people, using strong containers to store radioisotopes and securely fixing the containers in place.
They are also required to select personnel in charge of physical protection of radioactive materials and report a set of rules setting out relevant measures to the NRA. Violators will be subject to a fine of up to 3 million yen.
The NRA aims to revise laws and regulations related to radioactive materials by autumn and proceed with necessary preparations -- including training personnel in charge of radioactive material protection -- with a view to putting the rules into effect around September next year.
New measures are expected to bring benefits such as quickly detecting intruders and making thefts more time-consuming, sources said.
There have been no terrorist attacks in which stolen radioactive materials were actually used, but there is growing global concern over such terrorist attacks, according to the NRA.
In 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency recommended enhancing the physical protection of radioactive materials. Japan has been relatively slow to implement the recommendations due to such factors as the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011, but the United States and European countries are said to have already stepped up efforts to strengthen measures to prevent radioactive thefts.
Strong radioactive materials such as cobalt-60 and cesium-137 are used in a wide range of fields, including cancer treatment and industrial material checks.
In 1987, there was an incident in Brazil in which a medical device containing cesium was stolen and dismantled, resulting in a spread of the radioactive substance. In the incident, about 250 people were exposed to radiation, and four of them died.
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