Radiation Exposure and Peace

抄録

This paper discusses the abuse and misuse of nuclear energy in relation to peace. The application of rapidly developing science and technology related to wars has caused a rapid increase in the number of people killed in wars. Reflecting on this situation, international treaties restricting the use of inhumane weapons have been introduced, and this trend has reached the United Nations Charter, which, in principle, forbids the usage of weapons. However, nuclear weapons were produced and have resulted in the abuse of nuclear energy, as atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to restrain the USSR. At the time, this resulted in control being exerted through international policy, based on the threat of nuclear weapons, which conflicts with the principles of the United Nations Charter.

World opinions developed rapidly in the latter half of the twentieth century, and now, in the first half of the twenty-first century, world opinion demands the start of negotiations for a nuclear weapons prohibition treaty in cooperation with the United Nations. We now stand at the entrance to the door that leads to a peaceful and just world without nuclear weapons.

On the other hand, nuclear power plants were not seen as a misuse of nuclear energy but instead were promoted in the name of peaceful use. They are closely related to a world control policy for nuclear weapons that cause new bodily injuries from radiation, which have not been seen in chemical energy usage and which have brought change to the notion of peace. Under the nuclear weapons policy and the power plant promotion policy, the effects of radiation have been underestimated. If we study internal exposure scientifically on the basis of the real conditions of atomic bomb survivors and correctly estimate the radiation effects, we find that the number of cancer mortalities caused by radiation exposure due to nuclear weapons tests and nuclear power plant accidents exceeds the number of deaths caused by wars.