Global Strategic Center for Radiation Health Risk Control

Abstract

In the framework of the 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program entitled ``International Consortium for Medical Care of Hibakusha and Radiation Life Science,{''} a world-class academic research consortium, we intend to establish a pivotal center for education/research, with close focus on local populations in Chernobyl and Semipalatinsk, as well as on atomic bomb survivors. Moreover, in the context of social issues, including the nuclear power plant construction rush in Asia, radioactive waste disposal, and expanding medical exposure, the newly established Global COE Program will emphasize education/research in these three disciplines: (1) international radiation health sciences, (2) atomic bomb disease medicine, and (3) radiation basic life sciences. Interdisciplinary approaches will be employed to enhance the quality of individual educational/research projects and to integrate basic and clinical research. Specifically, we will link bench-scale work at laboratories with world-scale field work unique to Nagasaki University; that is, medical cooperation and academic joint research on the radio-contaminated area and the radiation-exposed populations, with the aim of benefiting the public from the research outcomes. To this end, it is critical to establish a discipline of ``Radiation Health Risk Control,{''} based on research in the world's radiation-exposed populations, and to develop human resources who will become leading figures in the field of radiation medical sciences worldwide in cooperation with the research institutes in the Unites States and Europe, WHO, and other international organizations. The COE finally seeks to make Japan-driven, creative, social, and international contributions through a new establishment of Radiation Health and Life Sciences.