Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-06-16
Mankind and Radiation

Vt0INHIO OIIU NQOIOIIOH
In effect. in its initial report on the
biological consequences of atomic radia-
ton, the National Academy of Sciences
has warned our own country and all other
nations that they face a major and un-
precedented task in learning how to live
safely with nuclear energy. Moreover, in
language that should sober everybody, it
has made clear that the task is an urgent
one involving basic scientific questions
that call for immediate and continuing
national and international studies of the
most intensive and cooperative kind.
To anyone who has followed our
Atomic Energy Commissions frequent
reports on this subject, the academy's
findings will come as no great surprise
In general, they confirm the Aces prior
assurances that the carefully controlled
testing of A-weapons and hydrogen
bombS-at the present rate-iS Of negli-
gihle significance in terms of adding to
the worlds radioactive risk-taking. They
confirm, too, everything that has been
said before about how such testing could
become dangerous if sharply accelerated
or reckleSSly conducted, and about how
an about nuclear and thermometer war
could conceivably make the earth unin-
habitable and destroy the entire human
race.
But the distinguished scientists who
have drawn up the academy'S report have
concerned themselves only incidentally
with the atoms military SIDE What they
have concentrated on, primarily, are the
current and prospective dangers inherent
in the kind of radiation that a peaceful
world must cope with. In their view, all
such radiation-no matter how small the
doSe-iS genetically harmful. They have
found, for example, that medical and
dental x-rays are being employed too
profiigately and that doctors had better
cut down on them Except in cases of
clear necessity to head of what could
become serious menace to procreation
and the health and well-being of future
generations Much more important than
that, however, is the reports assessment
of the great potential hazards flowing
from the fact that nuclear energy is now
being harnesSed, on an ever-increasing
scale, for industrial power and other
beneflcent uSes-a fact foreShadowing
the eventual release of almost unimagi-
nable magnitudes of radioactivity.
Perhaps the first comprehensive
public discussion of the problems posed
by this prospect was contained in series
of articles published in November, 1854
by The Stars science editor, Thomas r.
Henry, They are problems that revolve
chiefly around the question of how best
to dispose of the deadly radioactive
wastes that are by-productS of atomic
fiSsion. Some of the wastes can be
others must be sent to the bottom of the
sea or buried deep in the earth, and
there is as yet no sure guarantee that
such procedures will adequately prevent
genetic and other dangers that could
come with the fish men eat or the food
they raise on land.
This disposal headache is not yet here
in pressing form, but it is in the making
BY 1865, for instance, the United States
alone will have in operation reactors
whose daily production of waste atomic
materials will be equivalent to 10 tons
OF radium, and this immense output of
radioactivity will steadily increase both
in our own country and abroad So it is
clear, as the MAS report emphasizes, that
the growth of worldwide nuclear power
induStry-if it is to be safe and rational,
and not lethal contamination of the
earth's land, oceans and atmosphere
will have to be controlled nationally and
internationally on the basis Of careful,
integrated planning and cooperation.
Otherwise the human race might in due
course be subjected to a fatal overdose
of radiation.
1t is not possible, in relatively brief
space, to give an adequate summary of
this 62,000-word report. The material
must be read in its entirety to be appre-
ciated, and it ought certainly to have the
closest attention everywhere of all who
have anything to do with the mixture of
great promise and great threat that is
nuclear energy. In making it available,
the National Academy of Sciences has
rendered outstanding service not merely
IN An1orico h1f IN thu uuhoIo xn,orld