[ RadSafe ] Fears promoted by anti-nuclear Greens

[Steven Dapra]

April 14

         Try a paper by Dr. Abram Petkau published in Health Physics, March 
1972.

         This message was posted on RADSAFE on Jan. 14, 1998:

"I believe your question concerns Abram Petkau and the "Petkau Effect."  My
impression is that Dr. Petkau was/is a reputable scientist who's work in 
the 1970s
on membranes indicated the, under some circumstances, a particular effect 
can be
achieved with a lower dose when the dose is delivered at a lower dose 
rate.  His
work went down to 60 mrad/hr.  Dr. Petkau's work is cited in BEIR-III (but 
not in
BEIR-V).  The significance for radiological risk assessment was deemed 
negligible.

"The "Petkau Effect" has taken on some public relations significance due to the
publication of  a book with that title by Ralph Graeub, a German 
anti-technology
activist.  The second edition came out in 1994.  In this work, Ralph is a 
little less
extreme than he was in his earlier (1972)  work, "Gentle Killers."   Still, he
contends that nuclear power is devastating the world; causing AIDS is but 
one facet
of this damage -- he argues that even the soil is dying.  There is no 
logical position
in this book; it uses the "Petkau Effect" as hand-waving support for the
cockamamie contentions of  Sternglass, Mancuso, etc.

"My response to public concerns about the "Petkau Effect" has been that it 
is not a
new observation, that it has been considered by the responsible scientists 
and that
it in no way alters scientific opinion about radiation risks.  Of course, 
the Petkau
work does not approach environmental radiation levels.

"Have fun.

"Charlie Willis
"caw at nrc.gov"

         You can do a Google search too (as I did).  Most of the answers 
are anti-nuke hyperbole.

Steven Dapra


At 02:27 PM 4/14/08 -0400, Franta, Jaroslav wrote:
>Don & Radsafers,
>
>Where can I find some scientific (HPS ?) discussion of "The Petkau Effect" 
>claims ?  ....thnx !
>
>Jaro
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl]On
>Behalf Of dckosloff at firstenergycorp.com
>Sent: March 15, 2006 12:21 PM
>To: radsafe at radlab.nl
>Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Fears promoted by anti-nuclear Greens
>
>
>Franz
>
>Here is an example of how the LNT is used in a public statement by lawyers
>today:
>     "While Exelon claims that there is no danger to residents from the
>    spills, there is no safe threshold for radiation exposure without an
>    increased risk of diseases like cancer," he said.
>
>I have seen many other such examples used by many different people.
>Sometimes such uses are accompanied by calculations that show that some
>tiny increase in radiation exposure will certainly cause a specific number
>of deaths.  Dr. Gofman has used the LNT to calculate the number of deaths
>caused by exposure to normal background radiation.  There is a book called
>"The Petkau Effect" that asserts that the LNT significantly understates the
>death and illness caused by very low exposures.  The NRC has even posted a
>brief discussion on its website about such misuse of the LNT.
>
>Don Kosloff
>Bedford, Ohio