Nuclear Lobby Peddles “Theory” that “Radiation is Good for You”


 And Now ... 'Radiation is Good for You'

Among the nuttiest theories about radiation is that it is good for you. Yes, radiation is good for you—it exercises the immune system. That’s what some nuclear scientists claim. They call it the “hormesis radiation” theory. These scientists don’t just want to minimize or even flatly deny the deadly impacts of radioactivity—they want people to think it’s healthy.

An advocate of the “hormesis radiation” theory was scheduled to peddle the theory today before the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site-Citizens Advisory Board.

The DOE’s Savannah River Site is a radioactive mess—310 square miles in South Carolina—that includes the Savannah River National Laboratory and five now closed nuclear reactors. It’s been used through the years to produce plutonium and tritium for nuclear weapons, plutonium to power NASA space probes, and now seeks to make plutonium-based MOX fuel for nuclear power plants, and do other things nuclear. It is in an area of South Carolina which has a large minority population. It’s been designated a high-pollution Superfund site.

But Dr. Clinton R. Wolfe, executive director of Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness, wasn’t planning to simply comfort the 25-person advisory board with the “hormesis radiation” theory as regarding the radioactive muddle where they reside.

The topic of his talk was; “A Perspective on Radiation Exposure and the Fukushima Disaster.” People in South Carolina—indeed around the world—have become more aware of and concerned about radioactivity because of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex disaster.

Wolfe, like many in his group, is a product of the system of DOE national nuclear laboratories. He was at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the atomic bomb was developed, specializing in work with plutonium, then worked for Westinghouse, a nuclear industry giant where he led research on nuclear power plant corrosion issues, according to his biography on his group's website, and ended up at the Savannah River National Laboratory. After being deeply involved in nuclear technology—both its military and civilian sides—he took his position at Citizens for Nuclear Technology which, its website says, is committed “to being a credible, consistent voice on behalf of beneficial nuclear technologies and the Savannah River Site.” He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Wolfe telegraphed what he intended to talk about today in an op-ed piece in The State, South Carolina’s largest newspaper.

Wolfe began by explaining, “’Hormesis,’ a Greek word meaning ‘impel, urge on,’ refers to the phenomenon by which gradually adding a toxic substance to an organism produces an initial beneficial effect…. The concept of small doses of radiation having beneficial effects on living organisms fits this model.” He said there “are considerable data on laboratory animals and selected populations of humans from epidemiological studies that show beneficial effects of low levels of radiation. “


A grouping of safe-energy and environmental organizations took issue with Wolfe’s plan to pitch “hormesis radiation” to the Savannah River Site-Citizens Advisory Board.

nuclear-1280-942-wallpaperThey wrote a letter to the Department of Energy complaining that there would be “no accurate, science-based counterbalancing presentation that radiation at all doses can be harmful,” the agency’s “allowance for the presentation of a pseudo-scientific presentation to be irresponsible and believe that such a presentation may well give the false impression that hormesis is being endorsed by DOE. “

The letter discussed international and U.S. scientific bodies and reports that have concluded that there is “no threshold” for radiation exposure—that any amount can harm a person—and noted that the DOE itself “also affirms challenges to the hormesis theory.”


The letter also noted that Wolfe “does not appear to have requisite credentials in the medical or health physics fields.”


The DOE then cancelled Wolfe’s talk.


Wolfe is not the only nuclear scientist pushing the hormesis radiation-is-good-for-you-theory. A leader in promoting it has been Dr. T. D.. Luckey, the author of Hormesis and Ionizing Radiation and Radiation Hormesis. He contends: “We need more, not less, exposure to ionizing radiation. The evidence that ionizing radiation is an essential agent has been reviewed…There is proven benefit.”

Luckey, whose Ph.D. is in biochemistry/nutrition, also states: “The trillions of dollars estimated for worldwide nuclear waste management can be reduced to billions to provide safe, low-dose irradiation to improve our health. The direction is obvious; the first step remains to be taken.”


A medical expert on the impacts of radiation, Dr. Steven Wing of the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, where he is a professor of epidemiology, comments that “Luckey and the others advocating hormesis are without foundation.”


He declares that the push for “radiation hormesis” is “related to the conflicts of interest” involving these individuals connected to “universities, government agencies, industry and government laboratories that profit from nuclear weapons and the nuclear power industry.”

One Response to “Nuclear Lobby Peddles “Theory” that “Radiation is Good for You””

tim curry

Radiation hormesis is a wingnut hypothesis that low doses of external ionizing radiation,within the region of and just above background levels are beneficial to life.
No one even knows what natural backgound levels are anymore. Background levels are growing and have changed significantly in the world since 1945.
Background levels have grown 6 times since the mid fifties as doc has pointed out.

Radiation hormesis conmen and women claim that there are magical unknown reserve mechanisms in the biochemistry and immune system of our bodies that are stimulated by radiation and repair damage caused by the glut of manmade radiosiotope pollution and ionizing radiation exposure in that persons lifetime defying billions years of evolution.

The world is now covered with manmade radiosotopes and that never existed in billions of years of evolution.
They throw out a crackpot con that has been banned by the fda because it killed so many people who bought radioactive snake oil. Radiothor radium therapy. All the radiation therapys that supposedly treat cancer. Its all nonsense.
The biochemical mechanisms , metabolic systems, and enzyme systems that exist in our bodies have always had to do so in the presence of K40. Because there is K40 in our bodies that has changed over billions of years of evolution and the cells exposed to it have to . 95 % of our dna is garbage and has no genetic value probably from K40. The toxic window for added radionucleides is more narrow than we can imagine becuase more radionucleides in our body have an additive effect Hormesis is pure bunk and propaganda just as the fluoridation lie and tetraethylead lead in gasoline lies were.

Life is very tenuous, fragile, and precious. There is probably less life in the universe than we imagine if you think about more clearly and critically and do not jump to magic thinking or terribly biased conclusions that fit a money making or military scheme that is dishonest and criminal.

I have stood next to a barrel of refined Uranium 238 which contains 0.7% U235. Does it make a difference when the U235 concentration is 2%. Of course it does. It makes the difference between absobring enough concentrated U235 into your skin and lungs to gaurentee cancer sooner or later . U235 is such a strong alpha emitter even being only 2 percent or even 1 percent of a uranium batch is lethal.

There has never been an incidence of sponateous adaption ro acute radiation poisoning or chronic radiation poisoning in any persons lifetime. Claiming quantum mechanics and homeopathy means there is radiation hormesis just makes the whole thing that more outlandish.

They make outlandish claims that unknown biomedical mechanisms in our bodies are sufficiently effective when stimulated as to not only cancel the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation but also inhibit disease not related to radiation exposure.
Most everyone here knows what radiation therapy does to people.
Manmade Ionizing radiation is destroying the atomic and molecular fabric of our world. It is the gift that keeps on giving

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