Before it’s Too Late: A Scientist’s Case for Nuclear Energy

I was not invited to write a foreword for this book. Dr. Cohen, knowing my busy schedule, would have considered such a request to be an imposition. I volunteered to do so in part to acknowledge my gratitude to him for having been a constant source of reference materials as I have turned my attention increasingly to informing both lay and scientific audiences concerning the biologic effects of low-level ionizing radiation. My primary reason for vol- unteering, however, is to point to the importance of such a book for public education at a time when the media, in collaboration with a variety of activist groups, have developed among the people an almost phobic fear of radiation at any level. I take issue with the words of another Nobel laureate, George Wald, who states regularly "Every dose is an overdose. '" This philosophy has re- sulted in women refusing mammography for the detection of breast cancer even though this methodology is the most sensitive for detection of such cancers in the early, curable stage, and even though, at present, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women. It has led a Westchester County, New York legislator to state proudly in the New York Times that he v vi I FOREWORD had introduced legislation that would bar all radioactivity from the county's roads.

Table of Contents:
1. Problems in Public Understanding.- Reference Notes.- 2. How Dangerous is Radiation?.- Meet the Millirem.- Scientific Basis for Risk Estimates.- The Media and Radiation.- Genetic Effects of Radiation.- Other Health Effects of Radiation.- Public Insanity.- Reference Notes.- 3. The Fearsome Reactor Meltdown Accident.- Was Three Mile Island a Near Miss to Disaster?.- Roads to Meltdown.- How Secure Is the Containment?.- The Probabilities.- The Worst Possible Accident.- Land Contamination.- Why the Public Misunderstanding?.- Non-Safety Issues.- Reference Notes.- 4. Understanding Risk.- A Catalog of Risks.- Risks of Nuclear Energy—In Perspective.- Acceptability of Nuclear Power Risks.- Risks from Air Pollution in Coal Burning.- Risks in Other Energy Technologies.- Spending Money to Reduce Risk.- Reference Notes.- 5. Hazards of High-Level Radioactive Waste: The Great Myth.- A First Perspective.- High-Level Radioactive Waste—Hazards and Protective Barriers.- Quantitative Risk Assessment for High-Level Waste.- Long-Term Waste Problems from Chemical Carcinogens.- Should We Add Up Effects over Millions of Years?.- Why the Public Fear?.- Reference Notes.- 6. More on Radioactive Waste.- Radon Problems.- Routine Emissions of Radioactivity.- Low-Level Waste.- Transuranic Waste.- Summary of Results.- The Real Waste Problem.- West Valley—The Ultimate Waste Problem.- Leaking Waste Storage Tanks.- Waste Transport—When Radioactivity Encounters the Public.- A Radioactive Waste Accident in the Soviet Union.- Summary.- Reference Notes.- 7. Plutonium and Bombs.- Fuel of the Future.- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.- Nonproliferation Politics.- A Tool for Terrorists?.- Plutonium Toxicity.- Reference Notes.- 8. Costs of Nuclear Power: The Achilles’ Heel.- Understanding Power PlantConstruction Costs.- Regulatory Ratcheting.- Actual Costs of Nuclear Power Plants—Regulatory Turbulence.- Actual Costs.- The Situation in Other Countries.- The Political Battle Lost.- Cost per Kilowatt-Hour.- Coal versus Nuclear Costs.- Reference Notes.- 9. The Solar Dream.- Cost Problems.- Is It There When We Need It?.- Why Solar Electricity?.- Environmental Problems, the Media, and Politics And More Politics.- Reference Notes.- 10. What the Polls Tell Us.- Rothman-Lichter Polls.- Battelle and Media Institute Studies.- A Poll of Radiation Health Scientists.- Summary.- Reference Notes.- 11. Questions from the Audience.- Radioactivity and Radiation.- Trust and Faith.- Reactor Accidents and Safety.- Radioactive Waste.- Miscellaneous Topics.- 12. A Cry for Help.