Paper

It is hard to imagine a more ideal location for a nuclear protopark than Hanford, Washington.

New nuclear technologies cannot be prudently licensed without extensive prototype testing. But we can’t test without a license. Catch NRC.

Many more people are killed in commercial airplane crashes than in nuclear power plant releases for far less benefit. But flying commercial is safe and nuclear power is dangerous. Why?

LNT is the theory that radiation harm is additive. Harm is a function of cumulative dose and nothing else. Exposure period and dose rate are irrelevant. LNT effectively denies our ability to repair radiation damage. LNT has been the foundation of our radiation protection regulation, with pernicious results, except for our radiation minders. A rising chorus has called for replacing LNT with a model that does recognize our repair ability. But the Empire is now fighting back. A recently released INWORK study reasserts the validity of LNT. Should we be convinced?

The Gordian Knot of our time is the closely coupled problems of energy poverty and global warming. From time to time, we need to remind ourselves that energy poverty is the more pressing side of the Gordian Knot. You cannot solve energy poverty with expensive electricity.

Linear No Threshold (LNT), the radiation harm model which is the foundation for our radiation protection regulation is nonsense. It denies our undisputed ability to repair radiation damage. As a result it over-predicts harm in low dose rate situations, such as a nuclear power plant release by many orders of magnitude. But LNT survives. One reason is anti-LNT forces have not coalesced behind a single alternative. Another is that the most commonly suggested alternative, Linear With Threshold (LWT), has much the same problems as LNT.

What does DNA Repair and a Common Bar Hustle have in common? The answer is non-linearity.

A little history on nuclear plant costs

This is a draft of the package which will be sent to everybody living within 35 kilometers of each nuclear plant under Underwriter Certification. The package includes: 1) a cover letter, 2) a pamphlet with instructions for what to do in a release and an explanation of the compensation package, 3) a pamphlet explaining radiation for those who want to learn more about radiation damage and our bodies’ ability to repair that damage. Comments solicited.

This paper discusses some of the implications of the regulatory philosophy known as ALARA, As Low As Reasonably Achievable.