Shame, shame on you Allison Macfarlane for spinning such cunningly devised deceptions and then those outrageous fibs. I'm afraid you'll have to go and stand on the naughty mat.

Macfarlane is the chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). She assured those of us who are concerned about radioactive water flowing into the Pacific from Japan to the west coast of the U.S. that our worries are so much Chicken-Little hysteria.

“The highest amount of radiation that will reach the U.S. is 100 times less than the drinking water standard,” said Macfarlane. She continued, “So, if you drink the salt water, which you won't be able to do, it's still fairly low.”

Wel-l-l-l, it's not quite as simple as Macfarlane would mislead you to believe.

First, she uses the future tense referring to radiation that “will” reach the U.S. Wrong. It's already here. Marine Biologists at California State University discovered radioactive isotopes in ocean kelp within a month after the Japan's triple reactor meltdowns three years ago.

Second, Macfarlane cites low levels of radiation as “100 times less than the drinking water standard.” True enough. But she implies that there is a “safe” level of radiation. Wrong. All ionizing radiation, and that's the kind we're talking about, is harmful.

“There is no threshold below which there are no effects of radiation,” concluded scientists in the Cambridge Philosophical Society's journal, Biological Reviews. Moreover, radiation is cumulative; it builds up like interest on your credit card.

Third, Macfarlane would have you believe that the radiation in seawater is the same as organisms in that seawater. Wrong. All pollutants, including radiation, are bio-accumulative, their concentration increases with predation.

For example, the radiation in seawater is 0.00005 parts/million; an infinitesimal amount. But plankton in that seawater bio-accumulates it to 0.04. That's an increase of 800 times. Going up the food chain to predatory fish like pickerel, the radiation measures 1.3 or 33 times plankton.

If we compare the radiation in seawater with a pickerel we find that radiation has bio-accumulated an astounding 26,000 times. And for apex predators like tuna it is questionable whether it should be consumed at all, certainly not frequently.

So in an inconsequential way McFarland is correct, we won't be drinking seawater, but what's in that seawater will be on the dinner plate for many Americans.

As for Macfarlane's organization, the NRC, it “routinely puts the nuclear industry's needs ahead of public safety,” said Arnie Gundersen, an engineer with 27 years of experience in the nuclear power industry. It is “an ineffective lapdog agency that needlessly gambles with American lives to protect nuclear industry profits,” Gundersen said.

The NRC's latest scheme to solve Japan's “hot” water problem as stated by Macfarlane is to “treat” (whatever that means) the radioactive water building up in Japan and discharge it into the ocean. In a word, the solution for pollution is dilution. But that “solution” does not decrease the amount of radiation dumped into the Pacific.

So, then, who's minding the store? Who's looking out for the public's safety in food and in the environment?

It's certainly not Japan. Nippon's Diet gave the government authority to control information about the uncontrolled three-year release of highly radioactive water into the Pacific. In effect, it's anti-transparency legislation.

It's not the NRC; they're in league with the nuclear industry. The watchdog agency has no punitive power; it can only advise. In truth, the NRC is a toothless tiger than cannot bite, only manage a halfhearted growl.

And it's not the U.S. government. It does not even monitor radiation levels in seawater. Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said, “We don't have a U.S. agency responsible for radiation in the ocean. It's really bizarre.”

Whatever the radiation level in the Pacific Ocean is, one fact can be stated with certainty: Highly radiated water flowing from Japan's four disabled nuclear reactors into the Pacific Ocean will continue to increase in quantity and intensity for years to come, just as it has for the past three years.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA