nuclear-news

Role of scientists paid to minimise risks of nuclear radiation

Outrage as AP exposes Japan scientists taking money from nuke industry — But we usually only fly coach so it’s OK — Radiation standards ‘twisted’ after 3/11 to limit evacuations http://enenews.com/just-in-outrage-as-ap-exposes-japan-scientists-taking-money-from-nuclear-industry-doctor-radiation-standards-were-twisted-to-limit-evacuations-after-311-the-excuse-we-usually-only-fly-coDecember 6th, 2012 
Title: AP Exclusive: Japan scientists took utility money – The Denver Post
Source: AP
Author: YURI KAGEYAMA
Date: Dec 6, 2012

Influential Japanese scientists who help set national radiation exposure limits have for years had trips paid for by the country’s nuclear plant operators […]

The potential conflict of interest is revealed in one sentence buried in a 600-page parliamentary investigation into last year’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant disaster and pointed out to The Associated Press by a medical doctor on the 10-person investigation panel. […]

Some of these same scientists have consistently given optimistic assessments about the health risks of radiation, interviews with the scientists and government documents show. Their pivotal role in setting policy after the March 2011 tsunami and ensuing nuclear meltdowns meant the difference between schoolchildren playing outside or indoors and families staying or evacuating. […]

The doctor on the parliamentary panel, Hisako Sakiyama, is outraged about utility funding for Japan’s [International Commission on Radiological Protection] ICRP members. She fears that radiation standards are being set at a lenient level to limit costly evacuations.

“The assertion of the utilities became the rule. That’s ethically unacceptable. People’s health is at stake,” she said. “The view was twisted so it came out as though there is no clear evidence of the risks, or that we simply don’t know.”

Yoshiharu Yonekura, president of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences and an ICRP member

The risk is such a non-concern in his mind that he says with a smile: “Low-dose radiation may be even good for you.”
Fukushima Medical University professor Ohtsura Niwa, the only Japanese member to sit on the main ICRP committee

[He] acknowledged that the electricity industry pays for flights and hotels to go to meetings of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, and for overseas members visiting Japan
He stands behind his view that continuing radiation worries about Fukushima are overblown
“Those who evacuated just want to believe in the dangers of radiation to justify the action they took“
All ICRP members fly economy, except for long flights such as between Argentina and Japan, he said
[He] said that residents need to stay in Fukushima if at all possible, partly because they would face discrimination in marriage elsewhere in Japan from what he said were unfounded fears about radiation and genetic defects
See also: UN official back from Fukushima exposes nuclear cover-up: “Large number of different cancers and other diseases” after Chernobyl are not reported — Tells Japan to pay attention (AUDIO)

December 8, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, secrets,lies and civil liberties