A California activist group wants federal money to fund cancer research in communities living near power plants — an effort suggested by the National Academy of Sciences years ago but ultimately dropped by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission due to cost.
The petition is organized by the Samuel Lawrence Foundation, a Del Mar, Calif., nonprofit that’s long criticized radioactive waste handling at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) about an hour’s drive north of San Diego.
The group is asking members of the House of Representatives to seek federal funding for research recommended by the National Academy of Sciences in a 2014 report. In 2015, the Nuclear Regulator Commission (NRC) opted out of funding the study, saying that its estimated $8 million cost was “prohibitively high.”
“The San Onofre nuclear power plant (CA 45, 48, and 49) has been discharging low-level radioactivity into the ocean and atmosphere regularly since 1968,” the Samuel Lawrence Foundation wrote in the online petition. “No one knows for sure whether these radioactive releases are a threat to the health and safety for those who live in these areas (or over 100 million Americans who also live near nuclear power plants).”
NRC spokesman Scott Burnell declined to comment on the claim.
A local news outlet first reported on the petition this week. Samuel Lawrence did not reply to a request for comment.
“The Samuel Lawrence Foundation continues to promote fear over scientific fact,” said John Dobken, a SONGS spokesperson. “Many studies have shown that radiation doses below 10,000 millirem have no measurable effect on a person’s health. Standing outside the fence at San Onofre for a full year would provide a dose of one millirem. We all receive about 620 millirem a year from natural and manmade sources (like x-rays).”
