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 Kenneth Kepler, Church of the Larger Fellowship, Unitarian Universalist
Commenting as an individual

The ICRP draft document presupposes that life will eventually return to "normal" following a severe nuclear accident.  There is no precedent to establish a definition of normality.  When half-lives of certain radionucliides approach 100,000 years, life as earth has known it will be permanently altered.  There cannot be a return to the former condition free from radioactivity.

Also conspicuous by its absence is the varying effects that radioactivity has on different people.  Males reportedly can endure exposures double what females can, and children of all genders much less than adults.  Radioactivity does not discriminate: it strikes everyone equally.  The ICRP is not in a position to change these facts, nor can we expect it to be.

The focus needs to be on absolute prevention, not redemption after the fact.  Nuclear war must be avoided.  Nuclear power must be phased out.  Nuclear waste must be hardened and stored to the best of human ability, inadequate though that may be. 


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