Despite Billion-Dollar Budget, NRC Cancels Project Studying Cancer near Nuclear Facilities

[bananas]

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/despite-billion-dollar-budget-nuclear-regulatory-commission-cancels-project-studying-cancer-near-nuclear-facilities-150912?news=857406

Despite Billion-Dollar Budget, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Cancels Project Studying Cancer near Nuclear Facilities

Saturday, September 12, 2015
Ken Broder

A five-year federal pilot program to determine levels of contamination around eight other nuclear facilities in the United States was cancelled this week because, apparently, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is already doing such a fine job of oversight.

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The cost was $8 million, $1.5 million of which has already been spent. The NRC has a budget of more than $1 billion. Results from the testing were not expected until at least the end of the decade. The study, led by National Academy of Sciences (NAS) researchers, was meant to update a 1990 National Cancer Institute (NCI) report that focused on cancer mortality, with limited occurrence of the disease in two states.

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Supporters of the program are not happy. “Study after study in Europe has shown a clear rise in childhood leukemia around operating nuclear power facilities, yet the NRC has decided to hide this vital information from the American public,” said Cindy Folkers, radiation and health specialist at Beyond Nuclear.

Folkers blamed nuclear industry manipulation. Beyond Nuclear points to the NRC staff recommendation (pdf) that the commission drop the program. The policy issue document mentions a cheaper, crummier project pitched by the president of the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), but the staff concludes that no study is worth doing.

U.S. Senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), who pushed for the cancer study in 2009, also did not sound happy. He said,

“We need a thorough, accurate accounting of the health risks associated with living near nuclear facilities so residents can know if there are any adverse health impacts. But the NRC has decided to take a ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ approach to this public health concern by ceasing work on what could be a lifesaving cancer risk research study.”

To Learn More:

- Cancer Risk Study Canceled at San Onofre (by Morgan Lee, San Diego Union-Tribune)

- Regulators Halt Study of Cancer Risks at 7 Nuclear Plants (by Stephen Singer, Associated Press)

- NRC Pulls Plug on Cancer Study near Nuclear Plants (by Christine Legere, Cape Cod Times)

- Memo on Analysis of Cancer Risks in Populations near Nuclear Facilities Study (Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff) (pdf)

[djean111]

1. As long as no official studies are done, there is plausible deniability.

And findings of increased cancer risk would definitely slow down the flow of enormous sums of money to the nuclear industry.