Low-dose study finds no effects

[PamW]

28. TMI - no significant radiation dose to the populace..

RobertEarl,

Evidently you didn't understand that there are TWO reactors at Three Mile Island; Unit 1 and Unit 2. Unit 2 had the accident in 1979. Unit 1 resumed operation, and is still operating.

When Unit 2 had the accident, the containment building worked perfectly. It even contained a hydrogen explosion like the ones that blew the Fukushima reactor buildings apart. The containment building completely bottled up the accident as it was designed to do. However, at one point it was desired to allow workers into a small portion of the containment to do some work. In order to lessen the radiation dose on those workers, that small portion was vented, and the release was within what the plant is legally able to release. That amounted to the total release due to the accident. The release involved a few million Curies of noble ( inert ) gases. However, noble gases don't pose a big health threat because you can't absorb them; noble gases don't engage in chemical reactions. So if you breathe some in, you will just breathe it out, and the probability is extremely low that it would decay while in your lungs. The plant also released 15 Curies of Iodine-131 which is able to be absorbed However, the scientific study concluded that if you stood at the plant boundary for the week of the accident; you'd get about 1 mrem of exposure. Mother Nature gives each and every one of us a dose of 1 mrem every day due to cosmic rays and natural radioactivity.

This was all detailed in the ruling of Judge Sylvia Rambo, when she summarily dismissed the lawsuit against Metropolitan Edison, the operator of Three Mile Island:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/readings/tmi.html

As is clear from the preceding discussion, the discrepancies between Defendants, proffer of evidence and that put forth by Plaintiffs in both volume and complexity are vast. The paucity of proof alleged in support of Plaintiffs, case is manifest. The court has searched the record for any and all evidence which construed in a light most favorable to Plaintiffs creates a genuine issue of material fact warranting submission of their claims to a jury. This effort has been in vain.

As far as radioactive emissions from nuclear power plants; practically anything has some radioactive emissions including YOU

For example, coal power plants emit radioactivity in amounts 100X that of nuclear power plants as detailed by scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory:

http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html

The question is how much. From the following, courtesy of the Health Physics Society at the University of Michigan:

http://www.umich.edu/~radinfo/introduction/radrus.htm

The emissions from nuclear power plants, INCLUDING the Chernobyl accident; and everything else associated with nuclear power plants is labeled as "nuclear fuel cycle" in the table and amounts to < 0.03% of your background exposure.

Most of your radiation exposure is due to Mother Nature. Mother Nature and natural radiation radiate you 3000 times the amount you get from nuclear power.

PamW