Over two years after the earthquake and tsunami crippled the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, the situation at the reactors remains toxic and dangerous to public health as PSR and others warned.

California PSR chapter leaders on the dangers of nuclear waste.

An op-ed on the dangers of nuclear power co-authored by PSR Los Angeles member Dr. John Goldenring.

Today’s decision by Southern California Edison to shut down the crippled San Onofre nuclear power plant is a victory for public health, say California chapters of the Nobel-prize winning organization Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR).

The same underlying “man-made” problems that contribute significantly to the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan are in place in the United States and require preventative actions that go far beyond the limited steps taken far by the U.S. industry and its regulators, according to five groups commenting today on the English-language version of the official report of the Japanese Parliament’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission.

Regulatory, scientific and health experts agree: The “3/11” Fukushima reactor disaster is still ongoing six month later … and some major lessons are in danger of going unheeded.

PSR supports many of the recommendations raised by the NRC’s Near-Term Task Force Review, but the report fails to recommend moving spent fuel from packed spent fuel pools to hardened on-site storage.

It is the consensus of the medical and scientific community, summarized in the US National Academies’ National Research Council report Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII, that there is no safe level of radiation.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) today cited gross inadequacies in evacuation zones around nuclear reactors and underscored the ongoing health risks of nuclear energy to the public.

The release of plutonium from at least one of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors carries serious risks to public health and the environment, according to PSR. Inhalation of a plutonium particle the size of a speck of dust can lead to lung cancer and death.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) expressed concern over recent reports that radioactivity from the ongoing Fukushima accident is present in the Japanese food supply.

The unknown and changing situation in Japan regarding radiation releases is continuing to cause concern and confusion here in the United States. PSR National and our Chapters are receiving many questions regarding radiation effects and requests for medical advice.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) today called for a nationwide moratorium on new nuclear reactors in the United States and a suspension of operations at the nuclear reactors with a similar design as those involved in the disaster in Japan, as well as those on fault lines.

A news media briefing took place today with three of the world’s leading radiation exposure experts to discuss the consequences for human health of the nuclear reactor crisis in Japan.

"Strontium is chemicaly similar to calcium," says Dr. Ira Helfand, a board member for Physicians for Social Responsibility. "So it gets incorporated into bones and teeth and can stay there, irradiating the body, for a long time."

PSR Board Member Dr. Ira Helfand spoke at a teach-in to over 300 people, including members of the Vermont legislature, in Brattleboro, VT on February 21, 2010 to discuss the public health impacts of the Vermont Yankee reactor. The Vermont Yankee reactor which was voted down overwhelmingly (26-4) on February 24, 2010 by the Vermont Senate.

New final public health radiation standards for the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada don’t meet long held or scientific standards for safety and appear to have been pushed out in the closing months of the Bush administration, PSR charged today. The new standards for the proposed high-level radioactive waste dump were released yesterday.