Too much hysteria over nuclear waste, Utah physicist says

Blaine Howard isn't the kind of man to say I told you so. So when he heard the latest in the long-running controversy regarding locating a nuclear waste facility on Goshute Indian land in Utah's west desert — namely, that a Nuclear Regulatory Commission board did not bow to political and public pressure and scuttle the proposal on the grounds that it is unsafe — he did not get all smug about being right.

But the retired health physicist does admit that, "my reaction was one of a relief."

As I have stated in this column on numerous previous occasions, Howard, who served as the state of Utah's health physicist for 18 years in the 1970s and 1980s and has degrees from Ricks, New York University and BYU, has no personal stake in the business of dumping nuclear waste. Whether or not spent nuclear rods are transported to Utah is not his agenda.

What is his agenda is educating Utahns that it is not dangerous to our health if nuclear waste is transported here.

That and letting us know his belief that a little radiation could actually raise our average life span by a few more years and reduce our risk of contracting cancer.

"It's not that the material they're talking about transporting isn't dangerous if it's not handled properly," says Blaine. "But precautions have been taken to ensure it is safe. The citizens of the state of Utah could not possibly get more than a trivial amount of radiation from the cannisters the way they're packaged. The regulatory agency knows this."

As for that trivial amount of radiation that could get into our air supply, Blaine's educated opinion, after a lifetime immersed in the field, is that it would do us all a lot of good.

He cites a number of statistical studies — one in Taiwan, another in France, another dealing with shipyard workers — that reveal that people exposed to low amounts of radiation have significantly lower mortality rates and cancer rates. In the shipyard case, more than 38,000 workers who dealt regularly with small amounts of radiation were compared with a similar number of workers not in regular contact with nuclear material. Those exposed to the radiation had a mortality rate more than 20 percent lower and a cancer rate 15 percent less.

There are spas in places such as the Austrian Alps, the Czech Republic and the Canadian Rockies where people pay to immerse themselves in increased alpha particles in the belief it will improve their health.