1 The physical origin of nuclear health risks is the mobilization of natural radioactivity and
the anthropogenic generation and mobilization of a billionfold of the natural radioactivity.
2 Routine releases of radioactivity by nominally operating nuclear power plants, which are
classified as harmless by the nuclear industry, proved to be harmful. Within a radius of some
30 km an increasing occurrence of childhood cancer with decreasing living distance from a
nominally operating nuclear power plant is proved to exist.
3 Computer models from the nuclear industry fail to explain empirical observations of health
effects of nuclear power. These models do not include health effects of radionuclides within
living cells, nor non-targeted and delayed effects.
4 A number hazardous radionuclides are hard to detect with common detectors, enhancing
health risks.
5 In nuclear technology only engineered safety exists, which is subject to economic pressure,
to human behavior and to the basic laws of nature, particularly the Second Law of
thermodynamics.
6 Inherently safe nuclear power is inherently impossible.
7 Severe accidents are possible, involving a radioactive inventory of thousands of nuclear
bomb equivalents. The extent and consequences of such accidents could pale the Chernobyl
disaster. The risks of such large-scale accidents originate from the reactors as well as from
the interim storage of spent fuel and from reprocessing plants.
8 The only way to prevent disastrous exposure of the public to human-made radioactivity on
unprecedented scale is to immobilize the radioactive waste physically and to isolate it from
the biosphere in deep geologic repositories, lasting at least a million of years.
To deal with the global radioactive waste at the current rate of generation about every year
a new large deep geological repository has to be opened, at an estimated cost of at least
€10bn each. To dispose of the existing radioactive wastes from the past dozens of deep
geologic repositories would be required.
9 The health risks of nuclear power are growing with time as a result of:
• Increasing amounts of mobile radioactive material piling up in temporary storage.
• Unavoidable deterioration of materials and structures of the temporary storage
facilities, as a consequence of the basic laws of nature.
• Increasing economic pressure.
10 Ever since the beginning of the nuclear era the activities necessary to effectively immobilize
and isolate the human-made radioactivity from the biosphere have been postponed to the
future. This behavior has generated, and is still generating, an immense debt in terms of
energy, materials, human resources and economic effort. A habit of living on credit and
‘après nous le déluge’ seems to dominate the present attitude of politicians and the nuclear
world.
11 Nuclear power delivers energy on credit.
12 Information on nuclear matters to the public and politicians originates almost exclusively
from institutions with vested interests in nuclear power, for instance the International
Atomic Energy Agency IAEA.
The institutions United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
(UNSCEAR), International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and World Health
Organization (WHO) cannot operate independently of the IAEA on nuclear matters.
13 Health risks of nuclear power are greatly enhanced by economic pressure, as a result of:
• decrease of safety-related investments and staff at the utilities
• relaxation of official exposure standards
• decrease of the efficiency and independency of inspectors and regulators.
14 Health risks posed by nuclear power are an economic notion.
15 The basic questions the public and politicians are confronted with are:
• What are we willing to pay for the safety and health of ourselves, our childern and grandchildern and of future generations?
