A criticality accident occurred at the JCO nuclear fuel processing plant in Tokai-mura, Japan at 10 : 35am on September 30, 1999. Three workers while working nearby were exposed to high doses of radiation, especially rich in neutron. They suffered from the acute radiation syndrome and two of them were still under medical treatment.
This criticality accident taught us significant lessons of radiation protection for the personneles, e.g. physicians, nurses and firemen who are expected to rescue radiation-exposed patients in radiation accidents.
In this article, medical management of radiation accident, e.g. treatment of patient, with high-dosed radiation-exposure and with internal contamination of radioactive nuclides and estimation of individual radiation dose, were briefly explained.
The Japanese Association for Medical Management of Radiation Accident was founded on August 29, 1997, in order to promote the mutual communication of physicians who have to be engaged in treatment of radiation-exposed patients.