Risk Must Always Be Run Of Harm From Atom Waste

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27734, 11 August 1955, Page 13

Risk Must Always Be Run Of Harm From Atom Waste

GENEVA, August 9. The public must take calculated risk of injury from exposure to radioactive waste products, a British Health Ministry scientist said today. The scientist, Mr Walter Bink*, of the radiological protection service of the Ministry of Health, was delivering a paper to the Geneva conference on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Referring to the danger of radiation to atomic, industry workers and to the public from waste products, he said: “It is clear that whatever control measures are sought, some degree of damage, however small, must be accepted. “A calculated risk has then to be faced, both as regards injury to radiological workers and injury to the community, in a genetic sense, which may result from the exposure of large

I populations to very low-level radiation i from radioactive waste products.” Mr Bink? Said that an important difference between radiation hazards and many other occupational hazards was that the appearance of radiation effects was delayed, sometimes for 15 to 20 years. It seemed impossible to ensure that all statutory rules were obeyed, no matter how’ big the inspecting staff. all the problems created by atomic energy developments, none seems to have given rise to greater difficulties, or caused more public alarm, than that of the disposal of radioactive waste,” he said. “In Britain, most of the waste disposal problems up to now have been dealt with satisfactorily, although a workable scheme has yet to be devised for the centralised disposal of solid waste.”