In some military forces, modular field hospitals have been developed that are stocked with resuscitation devices for respiratory support and other necessary equipment, decontamination solutions, and staff trained to decontaminate chemical warfare casualties.
It also raised concerns about the decontamination of dental equipment.
By 1997 his anger had turned to action, and the first "decontamination actions" to destroy experimental GM crops took place.
The federal government commissioned the original 1980s decontamination program, before the Australian Capital Territory achieved self government, under a memorandum of understanding containing a formula for sharing the costs.
So long as the final tab for decontamination, decommissioning and compensation remains uncertain, so will the question of who pays but count on the poor public being hit either with higher taxes or with higher electricity bills.
The government has allowed the residents of some evacuated municipalities to return to areas where the annual dosage is 20 millisieverts (ie 20 mSv) or below, pending further efforts at decontamination.
For one, decontamination costs depend on lowering annual radiation to 1 millisievert, a goal now widely seen as unrealistic, says Tatsujiro Suzuki, a former vice-chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission.TEPCO says decommissioning Dai-ichi's four damaged reactors will cost ¥980 billion, but that does not include the clean-up, fuel storage or compensation.
Amy Smithson, of the Henry Stimson Centre, argues that the Civil Support Teams should be closed and the money saved used to set up proper decontamination units at 50,000 hospitals.The third early-response problem is shortage of people.
But it has all the necessary features: quarantine rooms, decontamination areas and large toilet spaces (patients suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea may pass out).
Worst of all, there are no jobs: farmers cannot plant rice and fishermen cannot catch fish.Indeed, one common complaint among evacuees is that the government's whole decontamination effort is a red herring.
Or perhaps Mr Cameron's "decontamination" project-designed to overcome the visceral hatred still felt in some quarters for the party of Margaret Thatcher-has not been as successful as it once seemed.
