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The single most important background radiation study is the Karunagappally cohort which compares cancer incidence in several very high dose rate villages on the Kerala coast with the cancer incidence in neighboring villages with normal background dose rates. In 2021, a major update to this study was published. Here’s a belated look at what this study and its update tells us about radiation harm.

The Sigmoid No Threshold (SNT) model of radiation harm is an important plank in the Gordian Knot Group platform. Since SNT recognizes our ability to repair radiation damage, it is necessarily more complicatedthan LNT. But unless SNT is understood by intelligent laymen such as Congress and their staffers,it will never be accepted. This paper attempts to explain how SNT works in a way that is accessible to everybody.

LNT cannot model both the harm we see when a large dose is received in a matter of hours or less, and the lack of detectable harm when the same or much larger doses are received over prolonged periods. The most glaring example of the latter is the radium dial painters.

An insightful 1982 paper tries to answer this question.

Why hasn’t industry pushed back?

The NRC and EPA have both formulated policy on how to handle a release of radioactive material from a nuclear power plant. The NRC urges rapid evacuation. The EPA argues for shelter in place combined with deliberate relocation. Both are wrong, but the EPA’s position is far more sensible.

Many have claimed that the radioactive release at Fukushima would have been much worse had the winds not been highly favorable. This note examines this claim and finds that the reverse is true.

This piece assumes we had a fixed compensation scheme in effect at Fukushima and compares the resulting SNT and LNT numbers.

The combination of the Price Anderson Act and the American tort system guarantees US nuclear power will not contribute to the country’s wealth and health nor to avoiding global warming in any meaningful manner. Unless this changes, American nuclear power is going nowhere.