Mescalero’s reverse waste storage vote (Mar 11, 1995) The Mescalero Apache nation voted 593-372 to proceed with a lucrative project to store spent nuclear fuel for some U.S. utilities. New Mexico Attorney General Tom Udall noted that the state legislature may exercise a veto over the agreement. Mescalero leaders said that the state can “claim [...]
Long Term Exposure: Health Studies of Nuclear Pros
Large populations of people have been exposed to carefully measured quantities of radiation in their professional work with nuclear power plant systems. These long term exposures to low level radiation offer a unique opportunity to determine what risk, if any, this new industry has added to the general level of risk in people’s daily lives. [...]
Learning from the Past: Lesson from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Following the end of World War II, an extensive study was performed on the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The study involved 91,230 people; 37,173 of whom were far enough from the explosion that they received virtually no radiation. This group served as the control group because their living environment [...]
Letter from the Editor: Exaggerated Truths are Falsehoods
The dose makes the poison. Almost anything can be a poison or health hazard if the dose is high enough. Most people are aware of this idea and use it in their daily decision making. Unfortunately, people do not often question just what constitutes a small, harmless dose and what constitutes a poisonous dose. Over [...]
How Deadly is Plutonium?
Rarely is the word “plutonium” published in a major news source without the adjective “deadly” nearby. Ralph Nader, noted activist and lawyer, once claimed that plutonium was “the most toxic substance known to mankind.” Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent each year in the United States doing studies of the characteristics of a [...]
Using a Consistent System of Units
One frustration that persists in making judgements about technical matters is that it has not yet been possible to develop a consistent system of units. People are creatures of habit and tend to use those units with which they are familiar. Old and useful textbooks and reference materials use old units that are out of [...]
Constant Exposure: How Much Radiation is Normal?
Everyone on earth is continually exposed to radiation. It comes from the certain isotopes of carbon and potassium in the food we eat, from cosmic radiation, from radon gas and from the decay of naturally occurring uranium, thorium and their decay products. Radiation: A Part of Daily Life There is a wide variation in the [...]