Not Surprising! NRC Killed Its Cancer Study | The Alliance for a Clean Environment

NOT SURPRISING! NRC KILLED ITS CANCER STUDY

URL: http://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/20151012/letters-nrc-fails-to-protect-public-from-nuclear-plants

NRC Fails To Protect Public From Nuclear Plants

NRC killed its study on cancer in populations near nuclear plants (The Mercury AP article Sept. 10).

Not surprising! The impossibility of hiding the undeniable truth about increased cancer around nuclear plants is the real reason NRC killed its study.

Many studies already documented cancer increases around nuclear plants in Europe and the U.S., including around Limerick Nuclear Plant.

NRC has powerful self-serving reasons not to disclose the damning reality. NRC lies about nuclear plant radiation and our cancer risks to protect the nuclear industry and their own jobs. Admitting the truth would trigger a public outcry, forcing Limerick and other nuclear plants to close. NRC officials would lose their jobs, with nothing left to regulate.

NRC wasted $1.5 million and over five years developing strategies to disguise the truth. Despite initial independent efforts to stop NRC from distorting reality, its cancer study methodology remained fatally flawed. See: Radiation.org.

NRC intentionally designed this whitewash to support NRC’s unsubstantiated, industry-biased, absurd position that radiation releases from nuclear plants aren’t harmful.

NRC officials should be ashamed:

1. NRC first falsely claimed no radiation escapes

2. Next, NRC admitted radiation is released, but made unsubstantiated claims that it’s not harmful

3. Now, NRC is shockingly considering an industry inspired scheme to claim, “a little radiation is good for you.”

Why? To eliminate liability and minimize industry costs associated with radiation harms, evacuation planning and decommissioning.

John Gofman, a medical physicist, warned over 40 years ago that nuclear power kills. He said, “The evidence on radiation producing cancer is beyond doubt. It is not a question anymore: radiation produces cancer, and the evidence is good all the way down to the lowest doses.”

Physicians For Social Responsibility and The National Academy of Sciences report stated there is no safe level of radiation exposure. Continuous low dose radiation exposure is just as harmful as one high-level dose. See www.acereport.org – Section #3 Radiation – No Safe Dose.

We never believed NRC would release a study showing nuclear power’s true harmful health impacts.

For years, NRC ignored documented shocking cancer rates, especially in children, around Limerick Nuclear Plant. ACE repeatedly informed NRC, yet Limerick wasn’t one of six nuclear plants included in NRC’s cancer study. Written comments on NRC’s cancer study were also submitted by ACE on May, 18, 2012 and during a national cancer study phone meeting on Dec. 11, 2013.

Since 2000, ACE investigated the link between Limerick Nuclear Plant’s radioactive releases and our shocking skyrocketing cancer increases, far above the national average. (Pa. Cancer Registry and CDC data 1985 to early 2000s). Links are clear. Childhood cancer rates near Limerick spiked to 92.5 percent higher than the national average by 1999. RPHP’s tooth study showed high levels of Strontium-90 radiation in our baby’s teeth. SR-90, not found in nature, was released from Limerick into our environment since 1985. (www.acereport.org Section#2, Cancer – Skyrocketing Increases: Links to Limerick)

Limerick’s radioactive releases end up in our drinking water, soil, food and people. Most impacted: fetuses and children. Additive, cumulative and synergistic impacts were never accurately determined. NRC has no accurate idea how much radiation Limerick released over the past 30 years, nor actual resulting health harms. (www.acereport.org Section#1, Radiation – Limerick’s Routine Releases)

NRC does no radiation monitoring, yet absurdly claims releases are small. Exelon, with a vested interest in the outcome, controls all radiation testing and reporting. Deception includes:

• Over 100 radionuclides are released, yet not continuously monitored and reported in real time.

• Radiation spikes are hidden using averages, estimates.

• Examples: Limerick’s unreliable radiation monitoring. Up to 36 percent margins of error (radioactive gases) make reports unreliable. Radiation monitor for a vital drinking water resource was inoperable for over a year. Limerick violates Safe Drinking Water Standards with impunity, sometimes drastically.

Radiation releases will increase with use of high-burn fuel and aging. If you want Limerick closed to protect you and your family, e-mail aceactivists@comcast.net.

Dr. Lewis Cuthbert

ACE President