Re: Gofman and Tamplin

["Jerry Cohen" <jjcohen@prodigy.net>]

    In the late 60's, I worked at what is now LLNL along with John Gofman
and Arthur Tamplin. Both were credible scientists. Gofman had an MD and phD
in physics from UC-Berkley;  Tamplin  a phD in radioecology. When the
Sternglass "revelations" were published and ballyhooed in the media, the
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), requested Gofman & Tamplin to review the
Sternglass work and report on whether it made any sense. They produced a
report which showed that the Sternglass analysis was essentially nonsense.
However, in the concluding section of this report they applied the current
ICRP/BEIR model  to assess radiation effects and concluded that if the
entire USA population were exposed to the  allowable dose limit at the time,
an additional 16,000 deaths/year would result. In their assessment, they
considered that the LNT was not just an assumption, but an actual fact!
    Upon receiving the report, the AEC told  G & T  that their assessment of
the Sterngass work was good, but that they should remove the concluding
section. When they saw the AEC response, they went "ballistic", stating that
they would not allow their work to be "censored', and they went public with
the whole episode. The media, of course, loved it and many articles appeared
discussing how the government was trying to suppress information on the
deadly nature of radiation. G & T became darlings of the anti-nukes and made
out pretty well on the lecture circuit and appearances as expert witnesses.
The rest is history.
    From what I recall, their technical analysis was correct,  provided one
can accept the propositions  that LNT is really valid, and that the whole
USA population will simultaneously and continually receive a radiation dose
at precisely the allowable dose limit.      jjcohen@prodigy.net





************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html