The Top 10 ProNuclear Arguments... Answered

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The Japanese evidence certainly does not prove the absence of genetic effects of radiation.

ARGUMENT 5: Antinuclear advocates exaggerate the dangers of plutonium. After all, the substance is easily safeguarded because it's produced in very small quantities. Furthermore, other dangerous poisons—like lead, which has an infinite half-life—are continually being spewed Into the environment.

GOFMAN: Plutonium has to be one of the most dangerous carcinogens that I know of. In fact, I believe that my own estimates of its toxicity—figures that are thousands of times higher than those of "official" estimating bodies-may well be under stated.

And—although nuclear advocates claim that the carcinogen is now made in relatively small quantities—if we develop an industry involving reprocessing fuel rods (which must surely come to pass if we commit ourselves to the nuclear energy route), society will be handling millions of kilograms of plutonium. Under such circumstances, in order to avoid a lung cancer epidemic, the containment of this plutonium will have to be 99.9999% perfect . . . in other words, they'll have to safely guard all but one part in a million!

And yes, lead does have an infinite half-life and may be injuring the brains of many, many children . . . particularly those in urban environments. However, pointing to the dangers of another damaging pollutant to justify creating plutonium is the equivalent of arguing that if others are committing murder, then additional homicide is justified!

The correct assessment involves the realization that if we're letting the lead industry get away with dangerous pollution, we should do something about the lead in dustry. . . and not promote still another dangerous violation of human rights and health.

ARGUMENT 6: If all U.S. power were nuclear in origin, the radioactive waste produced would amount to only the size of one aspirin tablet per person per year.

GOFMAN: The important concern-here, of course, is not only the amount of poison, but its toxicity. A fully developed nuclear industry would produce more than enough hazardous substances to kill everyone on the earth many times over. So the real issue is not whether each citizen's "share" of such materials occupies the size of a football field, a garage, or an aspirin . . . but whether one hundredth, one ten-thousandth, or one millionth of the accumulated poisons will escape. If the cumulative amount that is released is anything like one-thousandth of the little "aspirins" nuclear proponents speak about, we'll have one giant "headache": a cancer and leukemia epidemic that will make all of history's advances in public health care seem trivial.

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