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Make a difference in the challenge to confront global warming and prevent nuclear war and the development and use of nuclear weapons.
Please sign onto our letter to the White House, calling for the prompt release of health-protective coal ash disposal standards.
PSR physician experts gathered at the National Press Club on April 26—the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident—to draw comparisons between Chernobyl and the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis, and to issue a warning about the inadequacies of emergency preparedness, in the event of such an accident in the United States.
On April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating approximately 77,000 square miles of land and spreading dangerous radioactive isotopes around the world. The public health effects of this disaster continue to be felt a quarter-century after the accident took place. The ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan shows that the world remains vulnerable to nuclear accidents. We cannot afford another Chernobyl or Fukushima.
Dr. Jeff Patterson relayed his experiences at Moscow Hospital No. 6, where victims of Chernobyl were treated, saying “The long-term effects of this spread of radiation are much more destructive than the one-time x-ray and gamma dose that people received at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We will not see the final outcome of this experiment for hundreds of years.”
The Institute for Policy Studies’ Bob Alvarez spoke about how the Fukushima nuclear crisis underscores the vulnerability of spent fuel storage in pools to accidents or attack, especially the 31 reactors in the US with a similar design as the Fukushima reactors.
Dr. Andrew Kanter outlined the potential catastrophic effects of a Chernobyl- or Fukushima-scale accident in the United States and demonstrated PSR’s new online Evacuation Zone Map , which shows where a person lives in relation to a nuclear reactor and an evacuation zone. He discussed the difficult logistics of an evacuation and demands on medical personnel.
Dr. Ira Helfand wrapped up the event with a discussion of the harm to human health from radiation exposure, concluding “the risks to public health, the economy and our environment from nuclear power far outweigh the benefits.”
Read the full press release here
Watch the press conference here:
Tell President Obama to abolish the Nuclear Loan Guarantee Program.
Tell President Obama and Congress: No more subsidies for the dangerous and polluting nuclear industry.
(December 2011). A factsheet detailing the various delays, cost overruns, credit downgrades and design problems since January 2008 facing the supposed ‘nuclear renaissance.’ Read more »
Interview with Marco Kaltofen, PE, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, about his research studying airborne radioactive particles from Fukushima and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Read more »
PSR Main Points on Blue Ribbon Commission Draft Report
In 2010, after ending the failed Yucca Mountain project, President Obama convened a commission to make recommendations for managing US high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel. The following points are an overview of PSR's position on their conclusions. Read more »
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