OT Dangers of radiation from nuclear plants greatly overestimated: Prof. Geraldine Thomas

[Chris Hogg]

'Today' programme, BBC Radio 4 this morning (Friday) 0730

And also

And who she is, here

and here

[Brian Gaff]

Like most things though, it might be but is it not safer to assume the worst and be safe? After all there are still parts of Scotland where the levels are higher than they should be all these years later. Brian

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Chris Hogg escribió:

Thanks Chris.

And in today's Grauniad:

or

This comment caught my eye in view of recent discussion here about differing opinions of what constitutes a dangerous level of background radiation:

"Here, too, progress is slow, with local authorities reporting that more than 40 communities have yet to be decontaminated. The unprecedented cleanup, involving 26,000 workers, aims to reduce outdoor radiation exposure to one millisievert a year - a target Japan?s environment minister recently criticised as unrealistically low"

With there being so many differing opinions about what constitutes a dangerous level of radiation, it's little wonder that people have no idea who is correct and who isn't, and are concerned.

[Tim Streater]

So how would you do that then Brian? Build fossil fuel stations instead which are considerably more polluting and therefore more dangerous to the general health?

Or just not get out of bed at all?

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Tim Streater escribió:

Depends on who's in bed with you. :)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Hang ion a minute Brian.

Should be? all these years later? Aberdeen has been radioactive for millions of years ...

[Tim Streater]

Yes, it's unclear to me what Brian thinks happened "all these years ago" to make "parts of Scotland" more radioactive than they "should be" (whatever that means) "all these years later".

1) Which years?

2) which parts of Scotland?

3) these parts "should be" how radioactive and why?

[Chris Hogg]

I imagine he's thinking about that cloud that came over from Chernobyl and dumped caesium-137 on Scotland (and Wales?), and resulted in severe restrictions being placed on hill-farmed sheep being sold IIRC. Restrictions were lifted several years ago IIRC, but whether they were actually necessary, is another matter.