Radiological Protection of People and the Environment in the Event of a Large Nuclear Accident


Draft document: Radiological Protection of People and the Environment in the Event of a Large Nuclear Accident
Submitted by Dr. Richard Denton, Rotarians4Ban of nuclear weapons
Commenting on behalf of the organisation

Dear Sirs and Madams:

This is a long report that deals in generalities and not specifics.  It hasn't made specific recommendations such as getting rid of all nuclear power facilities that are subject to accidents and provide the raw materials for nuclear weapons.  It tries to dilute responsibility to the public when government and industry should be taking it.

It mentions the higher risk of radiation to women and children but doesn't make recommendations re lower limits of radiation exposure for this group.

It talks about responsibility of the public for its own health but doesn't recommend that they be provided with Geiger counters to monitor their exposure and that is only really for gamma radiation and not alpha and beta.

It doesn't recommend the giving the public iodine tablets as a precaution to those populations around nuclear power plants prior to an accident.

Its data references are out of date and need to be updated.

Past monitoring of the public, women and children after Fukushima has been inadequate.  Recommendations for better monitoring need to be made.

Lack of factual informaton provided to the public post Fukushima was a problem and this has not been addressed in this draft.  The public was moved from low radiation areas to high radiation areas due to the winds of the time of the accident.  It hasn't been mentioned how this simple problem will be prevented.  There seems to be more concern with concealing factual information on the basis that it will cause mass anxiety than actually deminising the risk of radiation exposure.

This draft thus needs major revisions.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Denton, BSc, MClSc, MD Emeritus, Assoc. Prof. of Clinical Science, Northern Ontario School of Medicine


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