Comparative Plutonium-239 Dose Assessment for Three Desert Sites: Maralinga, Australia; Palomares, Spain; and the Nevada Test Site, USA Before and After Remedial Action

摘要

As a result of nuclear weapons testing and accidents, plutonium has been distributed into the environment. The areas close to the sites of these tests and accidental dispersions contain plutonium deposition of such a magnitude that health authorities and responsible officials have mandated that the contaminated areas be protected, generally through isolation or removal of the contaminated areas. In recent years remedial actions have taken place at all these sites. For reasons not entirely clear, the public perceives radiation exposure risk to be much greater than the evidence would suggest. This perception seems to be particularly true for plutonium, which has often been demonised in various publications as the most hazardous substance known to man. As the position statement adapted by the Health Physics Society explains, 'Plutonium's demonisation is an example of how the public has been misled about radiation's environmental and health threats generally, and in cases like plutonium, how it has developed a warped risk perception that does not reflect reality'.