QUESTION:
Shouldn't the public be concerned with the study done for the White
House that said "several tens of thousands of latent cancer
fatalities worldwide" could result from a Cassini flyby accident?

ANSWER from FAQ on June 3, 1999:
The statement attributed to the Interagency Nuclear Safety
Review Panel's SER for the Cassini mission is taken out of
context. The several tens of thou-sands of potential cancer
fatalities relate to a hypothetical assumption of a complete
burnup of the Cassini space vehicle and RTGs upon atmospheric
reentry. The main point being made by this hypothetical case
was to illustrate that while a linear non-threshold model can
predict a large number of latent cancer fatalities, the
average 50-year dose delivered to any individual would likely
be on the order of 1 millirem (mrem). To place this
hypothetical 50-year dose level in the proper perspective, it
is equal to the average daily dose received by any individual
from exposure to background natural and manmade sources of
radiation. Based on the linear non-threshold dose response
hypothesis, the average individual would be eighteen thousand
(18,000) times more likely to contract a fatal cancer in 50
years from exposure to normal background levels of radiation
than from the postulated hypothetical release and vaporization
of the entire inventory of plutonium upon reentry. The SER
provides an independent estimate of 1,500 latent cancer
fatalities, but concurred that the probability of a Earth
reentry and release is less than 1 in 1,000,000.