US revising guidelines concerning radiation contamination

New York Times : Two years after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, the Environmental Protection Agency is updating its procedures for dealing with nuclear accidents, some of which have been in place since 1991 and which many experts in the industry say are overly cautious. The new guidelines will address not only initial emergency response but also long-term questions such as when can people return to affected areas. In light of the Japanese experience after Fukushima, the US is proposing raising the threshold for declaring affected land to be contaminated. Although antinuclear groups oppose any loosening of current guidelines, government officials maintain that the proposed revisions are “not in any way relaxing advice about cleanup standards or allowable doses,” according to Jonathan Edwards, director of the EPA’s radiation protection division.