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Just months shy of the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has upset radiation biologists studying its lingering effects. DOE has decided to remove the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) as co-administrator of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), the body funded jointly by the United States and Japan that has been conducting long-term studies of atomic-bomb survivors. The move has prompted concern about the future of a collaborative research effort into the health effects of radiation that has lasted more than 40 years.
Columbia University is expected to take over the U.S. portion of scientific management of RERF, which was created in 1975 as the successor to the U.S.-run Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and has monitored the health of 120,000 people who survived the blasts. DOE itself is expected to assume financial management of the $18 million U.S. share of RERF's running costs, which previously was given to NAS to administer. A proposal from Columbia has completed a series of departmental reviews and is awaiting the signature of Tara O'Toole, DOE's assistant secretary for environment, safety, and health.
RERF scientists were informed about DOE's plans in the...