Establishment of Nuclear Disaster Health Assistance Team (NuHAT) for nurse-led radiation risk management after the Fukushima nuclear accident

After the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, a gap emerged between residents, government officials, and experts in terms of understanding and accepting radiation risks, and this gap remains unresolved. Therefore, the Radiological Nursing Society of Japan hopes that nurses, who possess the most information on residents’ daily lives and health conditions and are physically and psychologically close to residents, can play a role in helping residents understand and accept radiation risks via the Nuclear Disaster Health Assistance Team (NuHAT) that it has established. The NuHAT aims to provide radiation risk management for the population during normal times and in the early, intermediate, and long term following a radiation or nuclear accident. The members of the NuHAT are those who have completed a Certified Nurse Specialist in Radiological Nursing (CNS) course and a graduate course in public health nursing. Going forward, we will continue our activities to raise awareness of the NuHAT among local residents, government officials, and nuclear power operators and to improve the quality of the NuHAT.