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Quoted above
The New York Academy of Sciences estimates that nearly one million from exposure to radiation released by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl reactor.
The above is a MISREPRESENTATION. It is a LIE that Helen Caldicott told, and the New York Academy of Sciences has been DENYING it ever since:
http://www.nyas.org/Publications/Annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1
In no sense did Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences or the New York Academy of Sciences commission this work; nor by its publication does the Academy validate the claims made in the original Slavic language publications cited in the translated papers. Importantly, the translated volume has not been formally peer‐reviewed by the New York Academy of Sciences or by anyone else.
Journalist George Monbiot discusses the scientifically questionable methodology used to arrive at the conclusions in the original study:
http://www.monbiot.com/2011/04/04/evidence-meltdown/
A devastating review in the journal Radiation Protection Dosimetry points out that the book achieves its figure by the remarkable method of assuming that all increased deaths from a wide range of diseases – including many which have no known association with radiation – were caused by the accident(15). There is no basis for this assumption, not least because screening in many countries improved dramatically after the disaster and, since 1986, there have been massive changes in the former eastern bloc. The study makes no attempt to correlate exposure to radiation with the incidence of disease.
Besides, there is NEVER going to be another Chernobyl RBMK reactor built. People have to remember that Chernobyl was NOT primarily a nuclear power plant; Chernobyl was first and foremost a nuclear weapons materials production reactor. They just coupled the output heat to a power plant to make electricity. The USA did the same thing with the N Reactor at Hanford:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site
See all the Hanford reactors; B, D, F, H, DR, C, KW, and KE all discharged the heat energy they produced directly to the Columbia River. However, the N Reactor took that heat and ran it into a power plant in order to produce electricity, just like Chernobyl did.
Here's President Kennedy dedicating the N Reactor:
http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/NReactor
However, N Reactor and all other production reactors where shutdown in 1988 during the Reagan Administration. The DOE has enough weapons materials, and as DOE scientists learned how to use those materials more efficiently, it became apparent the USA has no need to produce more. The USA can maintain its nuclear weapons capability with the material it has on hand for over 150 years:
http://www.lasg.org/press/2012/NWMM_7Dec2012.html
So the USA isn't going to build anything remotely resembling the Chernobyl RBMK.
It's as if someone came out with a new study that said that a million people died in the crash of the Hindenberg. Big deal. We aren't going to build any more hydrogen-filled airships, and the vehicles that we will use like Boeing 777 aircraft have none of the bad characteristics of the Hindenberg.
Likewise, the Chernobyl RBMK reactor design was known prior to the accident as being "over-moderated" and hence unstable.
As far as good sources to quote with regard to radiation safety, RCHP and other self-appointed "watchdogs" are to be shunned because they have their own agendas and have shown that they will bias their studies to support their agendas.
Much better to rely on the professional societies. The science that deals with radiation protection is the science of "health physics". The Health Physics Society is the scientific organization that promotes high scientific integrity in that profession. One of the past Presidents of the Health Physics Society is Professor of Medicine, Prof. John Boice, Jr; who was the lead author of the National Cancer Institute study into the health effects of nuclear power plants published 20 years ago, and is currently being updated:
No Excess Mortality Risk Found in Counties with Nuclear Facilities
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/nuclear-facilities
Dr. Boice was the "go to" person that the US Congress called to give testimony with regard to the expected consequences of the Fukushima accident. Courtesy of the Health Physics Society, here is the testimony of Dr. Boice to Congress:
http://hps.org/documents/John_Boice_Testimony_13_May_2011.pdf
The health consequences for Japanese workers and public appear to be minor.
The health consequences for United States citizens are negligible to non-existent.
Those are the holdings of REAL SCIENTISTS with impeccable credentials; and not the self-serving pseudo-scientists like Mangano and Caldicott.
PamW
