In a May 10, 2010 letter, Dr. Richard Meserve recues himself as Chair of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) from all committee activity related to a massive national health study that is taking shape around nuclear power facilities in the United States. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has requested that the NAS conduct a health study around past, present and future nuclear power facilities. As Beyond Nuclear identified in an April 29, 2010 letter requesting that the NAS conduct a conflict-of-interest review, Dr. Meserve currently serves on the Board of Directors for Luminant Corporation which owns the Comanche Peak nuclear power station in Texas and Pacific Gas and Electric which operates the Diablo Canyon reactors in California. Dr. Meserve also serves on an advisory board to UniStar Nuclear Corporation (Constellation Energy and Electricite de France) which has applied to the NRC to build new reactors around the United States.
The time for a full-scale bona-fide health study on the impacts of radiation exposure to communities downwind and downstream of US nuclear power facilities is long overdue. The responsibilities to assure that this colossal undertaken is fair and an independent study are immense. Given the growing political promotion of nuclear power currently underway, the study’s development, execution and interpretation will no doubt be a tug-of-war. The effort for an independent health study on the impacts from nuclear power facilities raises many of the same questions that have dogged the nuclear industry from the exposure of “down winders” in St. George, Utah to atomic testing fallout, the communities around the Three Mile Island accident, entire countries affected by the Chernobyl explosion and the Massachusetts cancer study around the Pilgrim nuclear power plant. Among the myriad of questions and tasks, one continuing focus will need to be on how this same NAS policy will engage the review and vetting of hundreds of potential committee members for final committee selection on this unprecedented radiation health study. The recusal of Dr. Meserve’s with his obvious “impaired objectivity” is a good first step and welcome sign. However, the task to watchdog this massive government effort in the public interest is only beginning.