National cancer panel holds second public meeting

The National Academy of Sciences held its second of five public meetings on April 18 in a Chicago suburb. View the webcast of the meeting.

Both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Exelon gave presentations on their policies and procedures for monitoring release data and reconstruction of doses to members of the public. Question and answer sessions followed in which the committee members engaged the presenters.

Dr. Joseph Sauer also presented Illinois health data that appears to show increases in cancer incidence.

The public comment session followed at 7:30 PM with several community members, including from Minnesota, and Beyond Nuclear offering information.

Tentaive upcoming meetings of this NAS panel are scheduled as follows, although session open to the public and public comment times are not yet announced:

Meeting #3	Atlanta	May 23-24, 2011
Meeting #4	Los Angeles	July 20-21, 2011
Meeting #5	TBD	August 29-30, 2011

The archived video of the open session of the first committee meeting is available here. Presentations available here.

Beyond Nuclear is encouraging citizens in and around these meeting sites to come and participate. Please contact us for more information.

National cancer panel holds first public meeting

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel assessing cancer risks around NRC-licensed facilities held its first public meeting in Washington, DC on Thursday, February 24. A webcast archive is available.

During their presentation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission remarked that people mistrust NRC’s contention that radiation doses from its facilities are too low to cause disease.  NRC says people are mistrustful because they know nuclear reactors produce radiation and are also responding to anecdotal or informal citizen surveys showing increased disease. Because of this mistrust, NRC says it wants a study that would help them communicate and answer these questions and concerns from the public.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking NAS to use pollution release data that is generated by industry and used to assess exposure to the public. Further, NRC says they do not expect this report to result in any change to regulation or official policy. NRC will continue giving presentations at future NAS meetings. 

In insisting that NAS consider using industry-derived and reported data, NRC is repeating one of the main stumbling blocks that has plagued past cancer studies. From this industry-derived, therefore conflicted, data, doses are calculated that are too low to cause any discernible health effect according to industry and NRC. At the same time, NRC contends that:  “Our entire regulatory process is based on licensees providing us complete and accurate information.”  

At an NAS meeting in April, 2010, the industry, through its trade organization, Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) declared: “These types of studies simply cannot even imply causality, and I would be disappointed if this study undertook to believe that it was a study of causality.”

No details for future meetings have been announced yet but NAS is accepting comments throughout this process.

Cancer committee meeting agenda posted

NAS has announced that the first committee meeting for analysis of cancer risks near NRC licensed facilities will be on February 24 and 25, 2011 at the Melrose Hotel, 2430 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC. Members of the public are welcome to attend the open session on Thursday, February 24, which will also be webcast. According to the current agenda, the public open session will be from 1 PM to 5:30 PM with public comments starting at 4:15. We encourage you to attend and provide comments. 

Activist urges Ottawa to examine Port Hope residents for radioactivity

A group of doctors wants the federal government to study the population of Port Hope to see if they are suffering from the effects of radioactive waste. “I think it is time for our regulator to stop trying to minimize, to obscure, to hide the effects of radioactivity on human beings and start acting to protect the public,” Dr. Linda Harvey, a family physician who has studied the effects of uranium on human health, told a news conference in Ottawa on Tuesday. “Canadians deserve better.” Harvey was joined by anti-nuclear activist and pediatrician Dr. Helen Caldicott, who sparked a furor last November when she told the Star the Cameco Corp. uranium refinery in Port Hope should be shut down and the entire town moved to another site. The Star

Chernobyl birds are small brained

Marsh warblers are one of the species affectedBirds living around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident have 5% smaller brains, an effect directly linked to lingering background radiation. The finding comes from a study of 550 birds belonging to 48 different species living in the region, published in the journal PLoS One. Brain size was significantly smaller in yearlings compared with older birds. Smaller brain sizes are thought to be linked to reduced cognitive ability. BBC