7 command centers for nuclear accidents asked to improve safety+

TOKYO, Feb. 13 Kyodo -
The internal affairs ministry Friday advised seven facilities that are to serve
as command centers in the event of a nuclear accident to improve their safety
systems, citing vulnerability to radiation exposure.

The seven are among 22 command centers across Japan operated by the industry
and science ministries. Each has been built within 20 kilometers of a nuclear
power plant so that it can expeditiously deal with an emergency.
A recent inspection of 13 centers by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications found that seven of them would have problems preventing
radioactive contamination in the event of an accident, exposing people inside
the facilities to the risk of radiation.
The internal affairs ministry thus asked the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
to improve the facilities' safety systems.
The centers in question are located in seven prefectures -- Hokkaido, Aomori,
Miyagi, Fukushima, Shizuoka, Ishikawa and Ehime.
Five of them were found to have a problem in their ventilation systems.
Measures to shield the buildings from radiation are inadequate at all of them.
The inspection also covered the information system that is to be used by the
command centers for the evacuation of residents, and found that population and
other data on residents have not been updated in Hokkaido, Aomori, Kanagawa and
Ehime prefectures since fiscal 2005. The internal affairs ministry asked the
science ministry to remedy the situation.
==Kyodo