Some 800 workers at a damaged Japanese nuclear plant only recently began to receive medical checkups, nearly two months after the nation's worst nuclear accident started, a news report said Saturday.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which runs the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, has been criticized for its lax safety management, DPA reported.
The workers have been trying to contain the nuclear crisis at the plant, which has leaked radioactive substances ever since it was hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
For almost two months,they did not undergo regular health checkups, Kyodo News reported citing TEPCO officials.
The Health Ministry had initially only required checks to be performed after the crisis was over, assuming a short-term emergency, Kyodo reported.
Thirty workers have been exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of cumulative radiation and many of them received their first examinations only this month, the officials said.
The checkups came after the ministry urged employers in late April to immediately examine the health conditions of workers who have been dealing with the crisis for more than a month or who have been exposed to over 100 millisieverts of radiation, Kyodo said.
On March 16, a day after the ministry raised the legal limit for radiation exposure in an emergency to 250 millisieverts per year from 100 millisieverts per year, it told the companies to check the health of workers exposed to over 100 millisieverts after they finish their work, Kyodo said.
Although six workers had been exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation as of March 19, no checkups were conducted, prompting the ministry to issue its updated directive more than a month later, the officials said.