DOE'S NEW RICHES: NEW RADIATION STUDIES

Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) has promised to obtain, through congressional appropriation, $20 million over the next ten years to the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research to study the effects of ionizing radia-tion on cells.
In the past, many scientists, members of the public and government officials have criticized DOE for studying health effects of radiation among its own workers, because this con-stituted a blatant conflict of interest. It was to DOE's advantage not to find any health effects, but when the study results showed people had been harmed, DOE tried to cover up the data and silence the researchers. As a result, Energy Secretary James Watkins rebuked DOE and handed responsibility for the health studies over to Health and Human Services in the 1980's. But, DOE has still managed to conduct radiation research, de-spite its well-recognized conflict-of-interest.
The DOE states in its program plan for the cell studies "…overriding goal of this (current cell research) program is to ensure that human health is adequately and appropriately pro-tected. It currently costs billions of dollars to protect workers and the public from exposure to man-made radiation, often at exposure levels lower than the natural background levels of radiation. If it could be demonstrated that there is no increased risk associated with these exposures, significant savings could be realized in risk management programs." This may sound like mere wishful thinking, but Sen. Domenici and DOE clearly want some bang for their buck. Just like the commercial nuclear industry, they want to spend some money now to save far more money later.
One of DOE's main research questions is whether ra-diation damage to cells is equivalent to functions our cells per-form everyday or assaults our cells fend off under normal cir-cumstances.
DOE seems to already have reached a money-saving conclusion. Its Research Program Plan states, prior to any con-clusions of their funded studies: "Research has taught us that while even low levels of radiation induce biological damage, the damage is similar to the oxidative damage induced by normal cellular processes…If the damage and repair induced by low