Your expert perspective...

[Tom_Fox@EHS.ucsd.edu]

          Good day radsafers
          
          An associate of mine is taking a general biology class at a 
          local community college. The instructor has an anti nuke 
          agenda. She has given the class an assignment asking the 
          class to answer particular questions concerning the nuclear 
          power industry. One question suggests that the nuclear power 
          industry started to replace REM with the SI unit Sieverts 
          for dose equivalent reporting. This instructor is convinced 
          that this was done because the sv equivalent for rem would 
          appear to be a smaller number, and would not be such a shock 
          when reported to the public. Rather than reporting 100 rem, 
          the industry would fool the world by reporting 1 sv. This 
          change, as the instructor points out, was done after the 
          Chernobyl accident. 
          
          Would anyone care to shed some light on this assumption? I'm 
          sure one rational shotgun blast will blow her theory away. 
          Sorry if it raised your blood pressure. Thanks in advance. I 
          can't imagine anyone being further off base.
          
          T.Fox
          Sr. HP Tech
          Office of EH&S
          University of California, San Diego
          tom_fox@ehs.ucsd.edu