With the recent frantic coverage of the GAO’s “sting” of Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing procedures, the phrase “dirty bomb” is again being thrown about in the popular press. I thought it was time to make the following piece readily available in another location. You might be able to find a similar document somewhere else on…
Professor Wade Allison recently gave a lecture to his Oxford colleagues titled “How dangerous is ionizing radiation”. He has concluded that excessively restrictive rules are more dangerous than the radiation. On Wednesday, 27 December, I woke up bright and early so that I could have a chat with Professor Wade Allison, who teaches physics at…
On Atomic Show episode 21, I interviewed Mary Mycio, the author of Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl. The book is fascinating, and as expected, Mary has some unique views on the use of nuclear power and on the ability of nature to adapt to radioactivity. Please go and check out the interview! Podcast:…
Health Effects of Low Level Radiation: When will we acknowledge the reality?
Zbigniew Jaworowski (Professor Emeritus of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection, Warsaw Poland) has written an excellent column titled Chernobyl: The Fear of the Unknown? It was commissioned by a group that received the draft from Dr. Jaworowski in February, 2006 and then took so long to review it that they missed the deadlines imposed…
This column was written by Dr. Zbigniew Jaworowski (Professor Emeritus of the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection, Warsaw Poland). It was commissioned by a group that received the draft in February and then took so long to review it that they missed the deadlines imposed by traditional media outlets for publication during the “attention period”…
Reprinted with permission of the author by Dr. Jerry Cuttler, Cuttler and Associates A symposium on this subject was held in Washington, November 15, near the ANS/ENS Winter Meeting. It was sponsored by Radiation, Science and Health (RSH), an international non-profit organization, and the Center for Nuclear Technology and Society at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI),…
Here is our best advice in case of a reactor accident that releases large amounts of radioactive material. If there is evidence of increased radioactivity in the air, stay indoors and breath filtered air. Forced evacuations make taking this action far more difficult. It is worth the effort to take sensible precautions against inhaling or…
Therefore, the immediate death toll from the accident was 31. Since the accident, 11 more deaths – possibly caused by radiation – have occurred among the population of highly exposed people, bringing the death toll to 42. The health effects of the accident at Chernobyl have been the subject of numerous intensive studies. Here are…
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….
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…
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…