letter regarding caldicott

["Michael C. Baker" <mcbaker@lanl.gov>]

Hello,

As requested, here is a copy of the letter I sent to the LA Times 
regarding the Caldicott Op-Ed.  They did publish the letter as one 
of the three responses but it was edited.  If I remember correctly 
most of the second to last paragraph regarding Plutonium was cut out.

Michael Baker

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Dear Sirs:

Helen Caldicott's recent Op-Ed in your newspaper is a fine example of 
sensationalistic journalism unsupported by the scientific facts.  When
reading Ms. Caldicott's writings one must keep in mind that she is not 
a radiation scientist who has spent countless hours studying the effects 
of radiation on man, but someone who has made a name for herself by making
unsubstatiated exagerated claims regarding nuclear power.

She claims to be concerned about public health but the clean use of 
nuclear energy could pervent the thousands of deaths caused by the burning 
of fossil fuels every year in this country alone.  She claims the release 
of Cesium, Plutonium, and Strontium, will cause thousands if not billions 
of painful deaths, but doesn't explain how these elements would be released.
Yes, they are contained in nuclear fuel, but that is where they remain 
throughout the lifetime of the reactor and that is where the remain when 
the spent fuel is disposed of as waste.

Even if they were released would they cause the health effects she claims? NO!
All of these elements have been released in substantial quatities to the 
atmosphere by nuclear weapons testing.  Matter of fact, orders of magnitude 
more than one pound of plutnium has been released but yet we are not all 
dying of cancer as she claims would happen.  During the early years of the 
nuclear weapons programs many workers were exposed to plutonium and had 
measurable amounts in their bodies.  They are living longer than comparable 
people unexposed to plutonium.

I hope the Los Angeles Times can make better use of their editorial page in 
the future to educate people rather than try to scare them with unsupported
nonsense.

Michael C. Baker, Ph.D.
1467 Oakwood Loop
Los Alamos, NM 87544

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Michael C. Baker, Ph.D.		Safeguards Science and Technology
Postdoctoral Research Associate	P.O. Box 1663, Mail Stop E540
Phone: (505) 667-7334		Los Alamos National Laboratory
Fax:   (505) 665-4433		Los Alamos, NM 87545
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