RE: Son of ALARA!

[L_K_II_Les_Aldrich@RL.gov]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Stanley Fitch [SMTP:stanley_fitch@nmenv.state.nm.us]
> Why ALARA?  Quite simply this:  One ionizing event can cause a single
> unrepaired double strand break, which may result in a fatal malignancy.
> 
And therein lies the problem with ALAA.  Gofman and Tamplin scared a lot of
people with statements like "So and so event may cause up to 30,000
additional (bad things)."  Unstated was the more probable "So and so event
my have no effect at all."  For ALA(r)A to be a valid concept, someone must
prove "beyond the shadow of a doubt" to all of our satisfactions that "can
cause" is really "will cause", and "may result" is really "will result".
Until then, I choose to believe that one ionizing event will have no
permanent detrimental effect.

I'm really worried about the amount of money we are all going to lose when
the public discovers that they and all of their sick and departed relatives
"might have been" cured if someone had just told them they needed to go to
the nearest nuclear facility and get their annual 500 mrem "health
maintenance dose." 

Just my opinion, of course.

Les Aldrich
l_k_ii_les_aldrich@rl.gov
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