On 12th September Chris Busby was invited to a government (Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy BEIS) organised meeting at Church House, Westminster, next door to the Houses of Parliament. He was appointed by the nuclear stakeholder NGOs to list and outline the evidence showing that the current radiation risk model was unsafe and that the laws that were based on it were killing adults and children living near nuclear sites and in other areas of radioactive pollution. The arrangement was that the government’s Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment would send representatives to respond, and the whole dialogue would be heard by the Minister for Energy, Richard Harrington, so that an on-going joint “fact finding” series of meetings between the NGO scientists and COMARE could investigate the evidence further. Busby had been booked on a SAS flight from Stockholm by the British government at 8pm but mysteriously the plane suffered engine failure on the runway and everyone had to disembark. However, having anticipated something of the kind, Chris had previously booked a backup flight and was able to make the meeting. Having failed to prevent his flight, the next move was to prevent the Minister coming—and this is what happened. The Minister sent an apology—he was detained on the House of Commons unexpectedly. Chris made his presentation, which focused on the new and important evidence of heritable effects found in births after Chernobyl in 20 or more peer-reviewed studies. COMARE refused to consider any of this evidence and refused to be involved in any further dialogue. However, the issue, which is the basis of a legal challenge in several European countries, and based on the EURATOM legislation, will also be raised by the NGOs at the Nuclear Decommissioning stakeholder meetings later in the year.
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