More harm than good
To the Editor,
Re: “Basic scientific facts?” (letter by G. Edwards,
NRT January 22).
Mr. Edwards continues to dangerously misinterpret
the facts of radiation.
“Dangerous” because, while misinterpretation
of this complicated topic is understandable, wilfully
spreading this misinterpretation incites fear
of good technology that - on a societal scale -
leads to increased death and disease.
The fact that something emits radiation, even
cobalt-60, does not make it lethal. The hazard is
determined by the dose, which in turn is determined
by many factors including (but not limited
to) concentration.
As an example, the human body contains trace
but essential amounts of cobalt, a portion of
which will be radioactive cobalt-60. This cobalt-
60 is created by interaction with the neutrons
emitted from our bodies every second, as well as
elsewhere in the vicinity – part of the natural
background radiation that surrounds us.
By Mr. Edwards’ logic we should classify ourselves
as high-level radioactive material, and
graveyards as nuclear megadumps.
The human body also contains very long-lived
radionuclides, born in stars billions of years ago,
that emit alpha particles, beta particles, and
gamma rays which our body absorbs.
Every second of our lives roughly 10,000 atoms
inside each of us radioactively decay this way, including
cobalt-60 and uranium (but mostly carbon-
14 and potassium-40).
This energy is natural and safe, even though it
comes from the same elements used to zap cancer,
sterilize surgical equipment, and run nuclear
reactors. We are part of nature’s energy.
There are experts in this country that know how
to distinguish between dangerous and low levels
of radioactivity.
They work at sites like Chalk River Laboratories,
and at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
which is responsible for our safety and the
protection of the environment.
Mr. Edwards is not one of these experts, and his
actions cause more harm than good.
Jeremy Whitlock
Vienna, Austria
Original letter to North Renfrew Times (2020 January 22) from Mr. G. Edwards:
Basic scientific facts?
Re: “Fear-mongering” & “No harm, no foul,”
letters to the editor, NRT January 15.
Two giants of Canada’s nuclear establishment,
J. Whitlock and K. Chaplin, apparently
cannot manage to debunk criticisms of CNL’s
proposed megadump at Chalk River except by
standing science on its head.
Mr. Whitlock claims that cobalt-60 is low-level
waste because “it doesn’t require heavy shielding,”
and Mr. Chaplin pretends that long-lived radioactive
materials with thousand-year half-lives
are harmless.
These statements are incorrect. Cobalt-60 contaminated
equipment can deliver lethal doses of
gamma radiation in a short time unless carefully
shielded.
Ontario Power Generation’s reports that a single
irradiated pressure tube from a CANDU reactor
can give a contact dose of 850 rems per hour,
providing a lethal dose in half an hour; and from
an irradiated calandria shell OPG estimates a contact
dose of 49,000 rems per hour, giving a lethal
dose in half a minute.
These doses are mainly due to gamma rays
emitted by cobalt-60.
Cancer patients undergoing cobalt-60 radiation
treatment have occasionally been killed by a failure
to regulate the gamma dose delivered by the
cobalt-60 source in the machine: see
.
As for long-lived radioactive materials, in the
first half of the 20th century hundreds of people
died from handling and sometimes ingesting
minute quantities of radium-226, a natural radioactive
byproduct of uranium with a 1,200 year
half-life.
Bone cancers, fatal anemias, and head cancers
were documented illnesses resulting from radium
exposure.
Radium is now regarded as far too hazardous to
be used in a commercial setting; it is mostly
dumped as radioactive waste in the voluminous
sand-like uranium mill tailings.
Plutonium-239 has a half-life that is 20 times
longer than that of radium (ie. 24,000 years) yet it
is regarded by the US National Academy of Sciences
as approximately five times more hazardous
than radium (BEIR-IV Report).
Hundreds of human-made radioactive materials
have been created as a result of the nuclear industry,
but the long-term management of these
wastes is ultimately a societal problem, not just
an industry problem.
Most of these materials have natural background
levels of ZERO.
It is also incorrect that beta and alpha radiations
can be easily measured, even though they are
often more harmful than gamma rays.
Hundreds of atomic workers at Pickering and
Bruce were contaminated with carbon-14 dust
and plutonium-contaminated dust due to a failure
of routine radiation monitors to detect these materials.
Canadians deserve truth and frankness, not evasiveness
and denial on this subject.
Let’s all try to respect the basic scientific facts.
Gordon Edwards
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