Nuclear Energy

These standards and those set by other governments worldwide are based on risk
coefficients for ionizing radiation exposure promulgated by the International Commission on
Radiological Protection. A few months ago, on May 6, 2009, a very important conference took
place in Lesvos, Greece: the European Committee on Radiation Risk Conference. 16 world experts
who participated in the conference issued a “The Lesvos Declaration” which unequivocally stated
that existing methods to determine safe radiation doses are clearly outdated. The declaration states
that the ICRP risk model was developed before the DNA structure was discovered and before new
discoveries such as that “certain radionuclides have chemical affinities for DNA”. Therefore, the
experts asserted, “the ICRP risk coefficients are out of date”, that “employing the ICRP risk model
to predict the health effects of radiation leads to errors which are at minimum 10 fold”, that
“damage to the cardio-vascular, immune, central nervous and reproductive systems” due to
radiation exposure is significant but as yet unquantified, and called for more research into the health
effects of radiation. lxxi
This only means that all the health effects of radiation outlined above are also an
underestimate, the full extent of effects of radiation on health of human beings is yet to be
understood…
Background Radiation and Man-made Radiation
Cancers have always plagued the human race, and it is generally accepted that most cancers
in the past and present are due to this background radiation. Nuclear authorities argue that there is
nothing to fear from routine radioactive releases from nuclear plants as it is much less than the
naturally occurring background radiation. lxxii Even if this fact is correct, that is a strange argument.
While we cannot do anything about background radiation, and therefore cannot prevent a certain
number of people from developing cancer due to this, should we not try and ensure that this number
does not increase by preventing man-made radiation from adding to background radiation.
We are exposed to a background radiation of around 100 millirems per year from the earth
and sun. lxxiii The US NRC has decided that it is acceptable for the public to receive an additional
100 millirems per year from man-made radiation created through generation of nuclear energy. This
means that for the NRC, it is acceptable that the number of cancer patients double (as compared to
the number of cancer patients that would have occurred due to naturally occurring radiation)!
The US National Academy of Sciences estimates that man-made radiation in the United
States accounts for 18% of human exposure. lxxiv But what is not realised is that as more and more of
the huge quantity of radioactive waste accumulating near nuclear power plants leaks and
contaminates the environment and enters the water and food chains around the world, the
percentage of radiation exposure from these sources is going to increase. And since this radiation
remains potent for tens of thousands of years, by using nuclear electricity today, we are bequeathing
our descendants a radioactive legacy tomorrow.
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