Given the unfolding events around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, I took the opportunity last week to substitute my Risk Assessment lecture with a question and answer session with two University of Michigan health physics experts – Kim Kearfott and Jim Martin.
It’s a bit like watching CSpan for an hour and a half, but if you are interested in the lecture, here’s the video (it takes a second or two to start):
Kim Kearfott is Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and Professor of Radiology in the Medical School. Jim Martin is an emeritus professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health and had a long and distinguished career in monitoring and addressing the potential health implications of ionizing radiation that dates back to the early US atomic weapons tests.
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These people are nuclear scientists and engineers with a key interest in promoting the nuclear industry. I live in Japan and it offends me greatly that they make light of this nuclear disaster and show their great ‘concern’ that it has supposedly overshadowed the plight of the tsunami and earthquake victims. There are hundreds of thousands of people affected by this accident – tens of thousands of people have already had to evacuate their homes at the very conservative advice of the government, the livelihoods of thousands of farmers in four prefectures around the plant have been destroyed, Japan’s fresh produce and seafood export markets have been devastated and this is before we even know the full extent of the damage. Radiation levels in the drinking water have been above the legal limit in Tokyo, a city of 13 million people. This is only a partial description of the destruction brought by this nuclear accident. If you are talking about your health in California then no, you don’t have to worry. But if you are Japanese, you have an awful lot to worry about.
Thanks for your comments Barbara. Of course, our perspective sitting here in the US cannot hope to reflect the suffering and misery being experienced in Japan at the moment. But in defense of Jim and Kim, I don’t believe they were trying to downplay the significance of the nuclear disaster, just to place it in the context of the horrendous impact of the earthquake and tsunami beyond this event. As I type this, the death toll has topped 10,000, and number of lives shattered by the events of two weeks ago are likely to extend to the hundreds of thousands. We should not overlook this!
I would also stress that these are two people who’s life work has been to understand the health impacts of radiation to people and to help protect against them. They are not promoters of the industry. And they were responding to student questions based on the situation as it stood at the time.
But this is still a developing situation, and I agree that in no way should we underplay its effect on people’s lives.
How can we promote nuclear plants with such dangerous disaster potential? How can we redirect our efforts/funds/studies into alternative energy production that are truly innovative and do not have potential disastrous consequences? What is the use of all of this if humanity ends up sick (if not worse!)
I would appreciate an answer to this question that so many people today have. I am a teacher and I know this is something many middle and high school students carry with them.
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