re: Linear Hypothesis causes foolish panic

["H.Wade Patterson" <hwade@talltown.com>]

Group:
I lived in Berkeley CA and worked at the Rad Lab from 1945 onward.
My memory, and it's excellent, is that citizens there and elsewhere had
no fear of radiation until the great debate on nuclear testing. The
public exchanges between Pauling and Teller explemplified this
controversy. It's an interesting footnote that during the Pauling-Teller
debates Jack Gofman made many public speeches arguing against the LNT.
It was only later that, for mysterious reasons, he made a diametrically
opposite change.

Like Pauling, anti-nuclear activists and the media seized on the LNT as
the basis for their arguments against testing. Gofman and Tamplin then
used the LNT as the basis for all their dire predictions about nuclear
power, also well publicized by the media, and embraced by anti-nukes.

If there was ever a time for sane intervention by ICRP-NCRP that was it.
Alas, they missed their chance.

In my opinion UNSCEAR-BEIR-ICRP-NCRP have since, faithfully reflected,
and done nothing to change, the politically based LNT.
I say "politically based" because, as Robley Evans and Laurie Taylor
have repeatedly told us, there is no scientific basis for the LNT. It
was adopted simply "as a matter of convenience".

I'm hopeful though, that, if we all do our part, UNSCEAR-BEIR-ICRP-NCRP
can be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the real world of today.

Best wishes to all,
Wade
--
H.Wade Patterson
1116 Linda Lane
Lakeview OR 97630
ph 541 947-4974

-- 
H.Wade Patterson
1116 Linda Lane
Lakeview OR 97630
ph 541 947-4974