A group of past presidents and fellows of the American Nuclear Society has composed an important open letter to ANS on a topic that has been the subject of controversy since before I first joined the society in 1994. The subject line of that letter is "Resolving the issue of the science of biological effects of low level radiation." The letter is currently the only item on a new web site that has been created in memory of Ted Rockwell, one of the pioneers of ANS and the namesake of its award for lifetime achievement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1 in 6 people get food poisoning each year in the United States and that 3000 die from foodborne illness. Food irradiation can drastically decrease these numbers by killing harmful bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella in meat and produce. The U.S. government endorses the use of food irradiation, but does not educate the public about its benefits. Food irradiation has not caught on in the United States because consumers fear that radiation will mutate the food. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a label (pictured below) for any food that has been irradiated.

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Yes, indeed, you do have one. It's rather surprising that many people simply don't realize that radiation exists naturally all around us, and is part of our everyday lives-whether we are aware or not.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just released a draft Protective Action Guideline (PAG) that sets standards and makes recommendations for the response to a large release of radioactive material into the environment (e.g., from a nuclear plant accident or a dirty bomb attack, etc.). The draft report is now out for public comments (which are due by July 15).

At about a quarter to three in the afternoon on March 11, 2011, a gigantic and unprecedented earthquake struck just over 110 miles off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. The quake was followed, just over 40 minutes later, by the first of several rounds of tsunami, which inundated enormous areas and eradicated entire towns and villages. Over 19,000 people were killed or are still missing, and over 6,000 survivors were injured.

All ages are welcome at the Friday Nuclear Matinee for this short video from the UK. Kids get in free! Also, adults who enjoy British accents-and cartoons-and the funny word "aluminium."

Plus a few pointers to what's in store for 2013

With the 2012 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting wrapping up in San Diego, a musical tribute to the nuclear sciences and technologies-and now, the nuclear arts!- is in order.

As a cancer researcher, I am constantly reminded of the horrific impact that breast cancer has on women and their families. This past week I received notification from my boss informing me and others that a work colleague's daughter had recently passed away from breast cancer at the age of 40-certainly this reminder was much closer to home than usual. It is difficult to imagine the pain and suffering my colleague and his wife are now experiencing, adding to what I am sure was a nerve-racking and exhausting period of consultations for the family and treatments for his daughter.

Science historian Alex Wellerstein recently wrote of a series of nuclear weapons tests conducted in 1955 at the Nevada Test Site, known as Operation Teapot. Among the important civil defense questions explored at the time was: What will the survivors drink after a nuclear apocalypse?

At the ANS 2012 Annual Meeting, ANS Public Information Committee's Dan Yurman caught up with Dr. Wade Allison, of Oxford University, UK.  They discussed radiation, health effects, Fukushima, Dr. Allison's recent book Radiation and Reason, and Dr. Allison's recent trip to Japan in this video interview.

NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission is scheduled for launch early on Thursday morning, August 30. How and why? An ANS Nuclear Cafe double feature matinee:

Even before its successful landing earlier this week, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory was already sending back important scientific data-about the radiation exposure that astronauts might face during a mission to the Red Planet.

The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia addresses scientific topics of broad and current interest that cut across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. "The Science of Science Communication" was a Sackler Colloquium interdisciplinary scientific meeting held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., on May 21-22, 2012. At this meeting, American Nuclear Society Past President Dr. Eric Loewen addressed the other "three R's" of [nuclear] education:  Radiation, Reactors, and Residuals.

At the ANS Annual Meeting in Chicago held June 24-28, I attended the "President's Special Session on Low Level Radiation and Its Implications for Fukushima Recovery," and also the follow-on panel "Health Effects of Low-Level Radiation." The two sessions together could well have been subtitled "The Tragedy of LNT." In case you've forgotten, LNT stands for "Linear No Threshold"-the popular misconception that radiation risk is proportional to dose all the way down to zero.

The American Nuclear Society's annual meeting for 2012 included a President's Special Session titled Low-Level Radiation & Its Implications for Fukushima Recovery (Warning-the link leads to a 54 MB, 208 page PDF full of disruptive information that might change your opinion on the benefits of spending billions of dollars every year to keep radiation doses as low as unreasonably achievable).

Facts vs. myths about the health effects of Fukushima and Chernobyl.  The conclusions of scientists studying health consequences may be startling to those exposed only to commonly held beliefs and traditional media (and Chernobyl Diaries!)

In recent days, a number of articles have been printed that assert that a grave danger exists at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear generating station. These articles claim that this danger exists due to the condition of the spent nuclear fuel at the site and the supposedly shaky condition of its storage and care. Two examples: