Epidemiology so far fails to substantiate the claim of an increase in cancer incidence in humans following low-level exposure to ionizing radiation, below about 100 mGy or mSv.

The LNT model was introduced as a concept to facilitate radiation protection. But the use of this model led to the claim that even the smallest dose (one electron traversing a cell) may initiate carcinogenesis—for instance, from diagnostic x-ray sources. This claim is highly hypothetical and has resulted in medical, economic, and other societal harm.

The release of energy from splitting a uranium atom turns out to be 2 million times greater than breaking the carbon-hydrogen bond in coal, oil or wood. Compared to all the forms of energy ever employed by humanity, nuclear power is off the scale. Wind has less than 1/10th the energy density of wood, wood half the density of coal and coal half the density of octane. Altogether they differ by a factor of about 50. Nuclear has 2 million times the energy density of gasoline. It is hard to fathom this in light of our previous experience. Yet our energy future largely depends on grasping the significance of this differential.

George Will presents the facts and arguments. Fossil fuels are the backbone of modern economies today. Like everything, they come with certain side effects. Nuclear power is the only option for the long term future. It can be managed so that it is the cleanest, safest energy source we have ever had.

"In science, credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not the man to whom the idea first occurs." This year's Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer awardee, a true son of the Johns Hopkins, is both a person to whom ideas first occur and, especially, one who, in the name of nuclear medicine, convinces the world of their veracity and usefulness.