This is my long response to conservative columnist Cal Thomas. Feel free to ignore it. I doubt if the newspaper will print it in full:

This morning's column (Portland Press Herald) by Cal Thomas was headlined "Panic over N-plants harmful in itself" and his major message was that as the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima 1 nuclear complex in Japan continues to unfold "politicians tend to overreact to such things and stoke public fear." I'm not surprised by this time of what Mr. Thomas thinks of various issues and by his unwavering support for nuclear power in particular, however much I disagree with his conclusions. But it's the reasoning of Mr. Thomas I would like to address, given that his sources are selected from the World Nuclear Association, a powerful international lobby group for nuclear power.

The short term impact of the Chrenobyl nuclear meltdown and fire of 1986 was indeed the direct deaths of 30 or so workers and emergency responders within a few weeks of that disaster. What Mr. Thomas has ignored are later official reports from which I quote:

"In the aftermath of the accident, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness, of whom 31 died within the first three months. Most of these were fire and rescue workers trying to bring the accident under control, who were not fully aware of how dangerous exposure to the radiation in the smoke was. Whereas, the World Health Organization's report 2006 Report of the Chernobyl Forum Expert Group from the 237 emergency workers who were diagnosed with ARS, ARS was identified as the cause of death for 28 of these people within the first few months after the disaster. There were no further deaths identified, in the general population affected by the disaster, as being caused by ARS. Of the 72,000 Russian Emergency Workers being studied, 216 non-cancer deaths are attributed to the disaster, between 1991 and 1998."

Given that the latency period from excess exposure to radiation for some cancers is 10 years or more, it should not be surprising that many more cases have now been documented, far in excess of what would have been expected if the accident had not occurred. The most chilling summary, and it's my turn to be "selective," is this research:

"A 2009 English translation of an earlier 2007 Russian language publication titled "Chernobyl" presented an analysis of scientific literature and concluded that medical records between 1986, the year of the accident, and 2004 reflect 985,000 deaths as a result of the radioactivity released. The authors suggested that most of the deaths were in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, but others were spread through the many other countries the radiation from Chernobyl struck. The literature analysis draws on over 1,000 published titles and over 5,000 internet and printed publications discussing the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. The authors contend that those publications and papers were written by leading Eastern European authorities and have largely been downplayed or ignored by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation)."

My own conclusions about the Fukushima 1 nuclear plant accident is that the design was seriously flawed in that the earthquake and tsunami exceeded by far its specifications, conditions for dealing with the unfolding accident were compounded by having six reactors at this site (another design flaw), and the heroic plant workers have in fact made several major errors in judgment ("worker error") as they desperately tried to stabilize the reactors and their spent fuel storage pools.

There are 23 nuclear plants in the United States with reactors similar in design to those at the Fukushima 1 nuclear complex, the nearest one to Maine being Vermont Yankee which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has just approved for an extension of its license after 40 years of troubled operation; there's still a chance that the Legislature in Vermont will veto this license extension. There is reason for public alarm.

Charles Ipcar worked with the Maine Nuclear Referendum Committee from 1982 to 1996.

Cordially,
Charley Noble