General public should rationalisation radiation

The public needs to have a better understanding of the safety of nuclear radiation, an

physicist has claimed. While the public is happy to accept the benefits of high doses of radiation in medicine, fears of radiation associated with a civil nuclear power programme are disproportionate.

Wade Allison, Professor of Physics at Oxford University, argues that this public apprehension of anything nuclear, which was fostered during the Cold War, is not justifiable and, with the onset of climate change, nuclear radiation needs to be assessed in more realistic terms when difficult choices between power sources have to be made.

Professor Allison said: ‘Current environmental regulations that attempt to keep variations in radiation exposure to a fraction of the natural level are over-cautions by a factor of about 500 to 1000. This factor is unnecessary and unaffordable. In no other field is such a safety factor applied.’