Thursday, March 24, 2011

Why We May Not Learn Much New About Radiation Risks From Fukushima

VPR News: Why We May Not Learn Much New About Radiation Risks From Fukushima

Richard Knox
, a reporter from Vermont Public Radio writes of his conversation with Evan Douple of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation
(RERF).
Vermont should be the most motivated area of the world to thoughtfully observe events in Japan (due to Vermont Yankee).

Spoiler alert - here's the end of the VPR article:

Given what you said about the impossibility of doing the kind of long-term study you mounted of the atom-bomb survivors, can we learn anything from the current episode?
On the basis of our current estimates, there shouldn't be measurable numbers of cancers. So you won't be able to count them, ever. But once the dose estimates are put together and extrapolated, you should be able to make a crude estimate of the health effects, based on the RERF data. And I think that estimate will surprise a lot of people.
And they'll be surprised because?
They're so low.

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