It Ain't Necessarily So: Radioactive Material

The long half-life of radioactive material is often cited as the most dreaded aspect of nuclear power, rendering contaminated sited uninhabitable for eons. That is false. The key variable is the rate at which particles radiating from a given volume of radioactive material strike the body. At a low rate they are harmless — they may even be beneficial. Natural background radiation subjects us all to a low-level bombardment anyway.

Unfortunately, government policy decrees that there is no safe level of radiation, and in so doing it has created a rationale for the anti-nuclear activists to oppose any and all man-made radiation, even when it is lower than that found naturally. In the Rocky Mountains, where uranium is abundant, natural radiation is relatively high. Bernard Cohen of the University of Pittsburgh offered to eat some plutonium if Ralph Nader, the activist's activist, would eat the same amount of caffeine. Nader, who had said that a pound of plutonium could cause eight billion cancers, refused the offer. Cohen later offered to eat plutonium on television, but producers and reporters were not interested. Yes, plutonium is dangerous, because you can make an atom bomb out of it, but its long half-life ensures that its radioactivity is not toxic to humans.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science