Radiation Effects Research Foundation may be relocated to Hiroshima general health center building
Nov. 23, 2016
by Gosuke Nagahisa, Staff Writer
On November 22, it was learned that there is a new proposal to relocate the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), now located in Minami Ward, Hiroshima, to the building of the city’s general health center in Senda-machi, Naka Ward. This facility is the property of the City of Hiroshima and the Hiroshima City Medical Association. RERF is jointly managed by the Japanese and U.S. governments. The city came up with this proposal after receiving a request from the national government to consider options for relocating RERF to an existing building. The city has now begun talks with the parties involved to advance this idea.
The general health center is a six-story concrete building that opened in 1989. The City of Hiroshima reportedly focused attention on the fact that the members of the Hiroshima City Medical Association had begun discussions to construct a new facility for their work in Nishi Ward. If this project is realized, the clinical examination center, which the association now operates on the second to fourth floors of the general health center, could be moved to the association’s new building. Based on this assumption, the city is said to be drawing up a plan to move RERF to this available space in the health center.
The City of Hiroshima has already broached this proposal with the Hiroshima City Medical Association. A formal request by the city is expected to be made soon.
Regarding the relocation of RERF, the city had acquired the land next to the health center, where Hiroshima University’s Faculty of Engineering once stood, as a potential place for the move, and an earlier relocation plan was once finalized in 1993. That plan, however, was ultimately overturned by the U.S. government due to financial concerns, and the relocation issue had since come to a standstill for many years. In 2015, the city launched a plan to reorganize the Hijiyama Hill Park, where RERF is currently located, into the “Hill for Peace,” and urged the national government to relocate RERF as swiftly as possible.
Under these circumstances, this past March, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare notified the city that it was difficult for both the Japanese and U.S. governments to fund construction of a new building exclusive to RERF because of financial constraints. The ministry also requested that the city consider relocating RERF to an existing building, and offered conditions for the building lease, including 5,000 to 7,000 square meters in space and about 60 million yen annually in rent. It is believe that the city began studying the new relocation proposal based on this request.
Makoto Matsumura, the chair of the Hiroshima City Medical Association, said, “We would like to begin considering the proposal after the city makes a formal request to us. We want to cooperate, if possible.” An official at RERF said, “It’s important to put our heads together and think about how to maintain the functions for our research after relocating our work. We would like to consider all this carefully.” An official at the Health Service Bureau, part of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, said, “We will keep an eye on the city’s efforts.”
Keywords
Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF)
RERF was originally established as the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in 1947 to investigate the long-term effects of radiation from the atomic bomb. Afterward, based in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the organization began a large-scale survey of about 120,000 A-bomb survivors. Since its reorganization into RERF in 1975, the organization has been jointly funded and managed by the governments of Japan and the United States, and has been working to analyze the correlation between the incidence of cancer in A-bomb survivors, their mortality rate from cancer, and the amount of radiation they were exposed to at the time of the atomic bombing. RERF has also been pursuing research on second-generation A-bomb survivors and those who experienced the atomic bombing while in their mother’s womb.
(Originally published on November 23, 2016)
On November 22, it was learned that there is a new proposal to relocate the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), now located in Minami Ward, Hiroshima, to the building of the city’s general health center in Senda-machi, Naka Ward. This facility is the property of the City of Hiroshima and the Hiroshima City Medical Association. RERF is jointly managed by the Japanese and U.S. governments. The city came up with this proposal after receiving a request from the national government to consider options for relocating RERF to an existing building. The city has now begun talks with the parties involved to advance this idea.
The general health center is a six-story concrete building that opened in 1989. The City of Hiroshima reportedly focused attention on the fact that the members of the Hiroshima City Medical Association had begun discussions to construct a new facility for their work in Nishi Ward. If this project is realized, the clinical examination center, which the association now operates on the second to fourth floors of the general health center, could be moved to the association’s new building. Based on this assumption, the city is said to be drawing up a plan to move RERF to this available space in the health center.
The City of Hiroshima has already broached this proposal with the Hiroshima City Medical Association. A formal request by the city is expected to be made soon.
Regarding the relocation of RERF, the city had acquired the land next to the health center, where Hiroshima University’s Faculty of Engineering once stood, as a potential place for the move, and an earlier relocation plan was once finalized in 1993. That plan, however, was ultimately overturned by the U.S. government due to financial concerns, and the relocation issue had since come to a standstill for many years. In 2015, the city launched a plan to reorganize the Hijiyama Hill Park, where RERF is currently located, into the “Hill for Peace,” and urged the national government to relocate RERF as swiftly as possible.
Under these circumstances, this past March, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare notified the city that it was difficult for both the Japanese and U.S. governments to fund construction of a new building exclusive to RERF because of financial constraints. The ministry also requested that the city consider relocating RERF to an existing building, and offered conditions for the building lease, including 5,000 to 7,000 square meters in space and about 60 million yen annually in rent. It is believe that the city began studying the new relocation proposal based on this request.
Makoto Matsumura, the chair of the Hiroshima City Medical Association, said, “We would like to begin considering the proposal after the city makes a formal request to us. We want to cooperate, if possible.” An official at RERF said, “It’s important to put our heads together and think about how to maintain the functions for our research after relocating our work. We would like to consider all this carefully.” An official at the Health Service Bureau, part of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, said, “We will keep an eye on the city’s efforts.”
Keywords
Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF)
RERF was originally established as the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in 1947 to investigate the long-term effects of radiation from the atomic bomb. Afterward, based in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the organization began a large-scale survey of about 120,000 A-bomb survivors. Since its reorganization into RERF in 1975, the organization has been jointly funded and managed by the governments of Japan and the United States, and has been working to analyze the correlation between the incidence of cancer in A-bomb survivors, their mortality rate from cancer, and the amount of radiation they were exposed to at the time of the atomic bombing. RERF has also been pursuing research on second-generation A-bomb survivors and those who experienced the atomic bombing while in their mother’s womb.
(Originally published on November 23, 2016)
