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Doctor Deals With GDF Health Worries

Following listeners’ questions about public health and safety of a geological disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, a local radio station asked their ‘expert’ doctor to respond to these concerns.  The doctor provides reassuring advice — subject to the facility being built and operated safely!

She makes the following points:

• sustained research by both the US’ National Cancer Institute and by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have found no link with cancer and living close to nuclear facilities
• suclear waste has been safely transported around the world for decades without exposing the public to a risk
• potassium iodide tablets protect against thyroid cancer but not against other cancers or health risks associated with exposure to radiation.

She concludes, that the establishment of a radioactive waste facility at Yucca Mountain “does not pose immediate or long-term health threats assuming no natural disasters or acts of terror cause a disruption in storage.”

For more detailed initial health advice in the UK, you can visit the websites of the National Radiological Protection Board (now part of Public Health England), the Health & Safety Executive, or the Society for Radiological Protection.