On March 1, 2012, the Health Physics Society convened a panel of leading scientific experts on radiation safety at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. While the quake and tsunami killed an estimated 20,000 people, radiation has not killed anyone so far, and members of HPS, drawn from academia, medicine, and the nuclear industry, suggested that the doses were too small to have much effect.
One of the HPS experts, Dr. Kathryn Higley, Head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Oregon State University and the former Reactor Supervisor for the Reed College TRIGA reactor, was asked a few questions about the adequacy of Emergency Planning Zones (EPZ) and whether or not they are sufficient to protect public health and safety around nuclear power plants.
For more on the HPS event, click here.
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