{"id":11987,"date":"2015-09-08T07:44:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T12:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11987"},"modified":"2015-09-08T07:44:41","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T12:44:41","slug":"radiation-is-good-for-you-and-other-tall-tales-of-the-nuclear-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11987","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRadiation is Good for You!\u201d and Other Tall Tales of the Nuclear Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"headline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2015\/09\/08\/radiation-is-good-for-you-and-other-tall-tales-of-the-nuclear-industry\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">\u201cRadiation is Good for You!\u201d and Other Tall Tales of the Nuclear Industry<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2015\/09\/radiationexp.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-73944\" src=\"http:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2015\/09\/radiationexp-510x380.jpg\" alt=\"radiationexp\" width=\"510\" height=\"380\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a move to eliminate the \u201cLinear No-Threshold\u201d (LNT) basis of radiation protection that the U.S. has used for decades and replace it with the \u201cradiation hormesis\u201d theory\u2014which holds that low doses of radioactivity are good for people.<\/p>\n<p>The change is being pushed by \u201ca group of pro-nuclear fanatics\u2014there is really no other way to describe them,\u201d charges the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) based near Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf implemented, the hormesis model would result in needless death and misery,\u201d says Michael Mariotte, NIRS president. The current U.S. requirement that nuclear plant operators reduce exposures to the public to \u201cas low as reasonably achievable\u201d would be \u201ctossed out the window. Emergency planning zones would be significantly reduced or abolished entirely. Instead of being forced to spend money to limit radiation releases, nuclear utilities could pocket greater profits. In addition, adoption of the radiation model by the NRC would throw the entire government\u2019s radiation protection rules into disarray, since other agencies, like the EPA, also rely on the LNT model.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anything,\u201d says Mariotte, \u201cthe NRC radiation standards need to be strengthened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NRC has a set a deadline of November 19 for people to comment on the proposed change. The public can send comments to the U.S. government\u2019s \u201cregulations\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.regulations.gov\/#!docketDetail;D=NRC-2015-0057\">website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Comments can also be sent by regular mail to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention:Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. Docket ID. Needed to be noted on any letter is the code NRC-2015-0057.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">If the NRC agrees to the switch, \u201cThis would be the most significant and alarming change to U.S. federal policy on nuclear radiation,\u201d reports the online publication\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/nuclear-news.net\/2015\/07\/31\/will-usas-nuclear-regulatory-commission-allow-the-nuclear-lobby-to-set-radiation-standards\/\">Nuclear-News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission may decide that exposure to ionizing radiation is beneficial\u2014from nuclear bombs, nuclear power plants, depleted uranium, x-rays and Fukushima,\u201d notes\u00a0<em>Nuclear-News.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cRadiation is Good for You!\u201d and Other Tall Tales of the Nuclear Industry The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering a move to eliminate the \u201cLinear No-Threshold\u201d (LNT) basis of radiation protection that the U.S. has used for decades and replace it with the \u201cradiation hormesis\u201d theory\u2014which holds that low doses of radioactivity are good [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5493,8798,8799,5397,6141,2142,5398,865],"class_list":["post-11987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-counterpunch","tag-linear-no-threshold","tag-lnt","tag-nrc","tag-nuclear-industry","tag-radiation","tag-us-nuclear-regulatory-commission","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11988,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987\/revisions\/11988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}