Imaginary Cancers

["GARY MANSFIELD" <GARY.MANSFIELD@quickmail.llnl.gov>]

                                        - Captain Internal Dosimetry!

                                      Imaginary Cancers

Reply to John Huges at SONGS.

I'll let someone else address the actual risk numbers, but it occurs to me
that there is a hidden assumption in the wording this "anti-" person is using:

"the repository radiation release standard associated with one excess cancer
death for every 285 exposed individuals."  

Incomplete English sentences notwithstanding, if I understand your subsequent
discussion, this excess cancer risk is supposedly associated with a dose of
100 millirem.  [All you linear hypothesis guys jump right in here!]   The
underlying assumption is that a single human being on this planet would EVER
get a dose that high from the repository.   I would be willing to bet a
million dollars (or, at least a can of Coke) that by the time the repository
is finished (if, indeed, it ever is) that a member of the public couldn't get
a 100 millirem dose even if they WANTED to!!

So be careful to split this "gentlemen's" argument into two parts:

1.  The PROBABILITY of anyone ever getting a dose of this magnitude, and 

2.  the "risk" associated with an additional deadly 100 millirem.

Don't let these folks get away with the hidden assumption that people will
actual receive doses of this magnitude!!!!!!!

Aside -  Do any of these clowns live in Denver?  And if so, do they wear lead
clothing?   Oops!  I forgot.  There I go again, mixing the deadly, immoral,
effects of man-made radiation with the natural (and thereby harmless) effects
of natural background radiation.

Good luck!