Radiation Rules Are Stalling Nuclear Power

UNREASONABLY STRICT RADIATION exposure limits are holding back nuclear power development, according to a July report from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) researchers. The report challenges the current model for radiation exposure, arguing that recent evidence shows it is biologically unwarranted.

- Ronald Bailey

The current linear no-threshold approach assumes any amount of radiation—even minuscule—increases cancer risk in direct proportion to the dose, with no safe threshold.

This model underpins the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules requiring exposures to be kept “as low as reasonably achievable,” which has effectively shifted to “as low as possible.”

Americans, on average, are exposed to about 620 millirems of radiation annually—roughly half from natural sources such as soil, rocks, radon gas, and cosmic rays, and half from medical imaging. The Commission acknowledges that this amount “has not been shown to cause humans any harm.”