Release Date: September 30, 2025
In May 2025, President Trump issued his executive orders greenlighting nuclear power and identifying something called “LNT” as a flawed theory not grounded in science. Suddenly, many thousands of people wanted to know “What the hell is LNT? And why, after all these years, should it be abandoned?”
This new book by Mike Conley gives the answers to these questions. It’s the first book for the general reader on this important topic. LNT (“Linear No-Threshold”) is the hypothesis that any amount of nuclear radiation, no matter how tiny, does some harm, and the only safe dose of radiation is zero. This hypothesis is provably false, and yet it has dominated nuclear policy since the 1940s, holding back the development of the safest, most efficient, and cleanest form of energy generation.
The LNT Report: How Bad Science Made the World Afraid of Nuclear Power is a fascinating detective story, uncovering the history of the LNT dogma, showing how it finally came to be exposed and debunked as bad science (BS). Careless assumptions, panicky post-Hiroshima emotions, careerist bad faith, and the financial interests of fossil-fuel titans all played a part. The result was the domination of public discussion by a false conclusion: radiation is risky in any quantity, no matter how low the dose.
In 1927, Professor Hermann Muller published a paper asserting the LNT hypothesis, though providing no evidence for it. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for this paper in 1946, despite the fact that the evidence he had gathered since 1927 was deeply flawed and the hypothesis itself dubious. In the years that followed, Muller and his supporters employed all available means to cover up the deficiencies in LNT, even to the point of suppressing contrary evidence.
The hero of this detective story is the outstanding scientific authority in the field, Professor Edward J. Calabrese, who traced the LNT hypothesis from its inception up to recent years. Calabrese looked at every available detail of the discussion, even including the private correspondence of Muller and others, and showed how, at every step, wrong assumptions and unsound experimental techniques were employed to save LNT from public refutation, and to save Muller’s Nobel Prize from being scandalously discredited.
The truth, finally made clear by many years of careful scientific examination and by recent advances in cell biology, is that low doses of radiation are harmless, and even beneficial to health, because of the human body’s natural ability to repair cells damaged by radiation. Fears of the risks of nuclear power have been wildly exaggerated and then irresponsibly hyped.
We’re all constantly subject to natural background radiation. Life on Earth evolved subject to continual radiation, which has gradually declined over the millennia, so that we’re pre-adapted to higher background radiation than we experience today, and may even benefit from increased radiation. Low-dose radiation is like exercise for your body’s cells, which naturally respond by up-regulating their DNA repair mechanisms.
Nuclear energy is not only clean and inexhaustible, its risks are far smaller than the hazards of any alternative, including not just fossil fuels but also ‘renewables’, solar and wind, which turn out to be more dangerous than people have been led to believe, as well as unsustainable economically. Wind and solar can only be maintained if supported by nuclear power or fossil fuels, or by environmentally hazardous fleets of jumbo batteries.
Beginning with Muller’s careless assumptions. The LNT Report traces the twists and turns of LNT’s reception and dissemination by politicians, media, and the public. The propagation of LNT was boosted by people’s horror at the prospect of nuclear war, motivating them to say anything to discredit nuclear energy, and also by fossil fuel financial interests, which had their own anti-nuclear bias.
The LNT Report has been exhaustively vetted and approved by numerous scientific experts, some of whose names and credentials are listed in the book. This is solid science at its best, explained to the non-scientist reader by an outstanding popular science writer. It’s a companion book to Earth Is a Nuclear Planet (2024) and the forthcoming Roadmap to Nowhere (2026), the ultimate exposé of ‘renewables’, both co-authored by Mike Conley.
carusbooks –
Rated 5 out of 5
Prof. Jess H. Brewer – September 3, 2025
Mike Conley’s “LNT Report” is an essential read in today’s world of political tug-of-war between paranoid over-regulation and oblivious profiteering. He tells the story of Ed Calbrese’s research into the underhanded lionization of Herbert Muller with a Nobel prize, no less, based on the discredited Linear, No Threshold model of radiation damage — which has been used ever since as the fundamental principle behind regulation of doses and the As Low As Reasonably Achievable policy for reactors, which in turn has rendered them too expensive and difficult to build for their advantages ever to be realized.
Whether you believe that fossil fuel combustion is rendering the planet uninhabitable or accept this situation as normal and inevitable (and profitable!), it is your duty to be aware of the thumbs that have been on the scale of power grid decisions for the last century.
If you believe that no amount of radiation is safe, you DESPERATELY need to read this book!
Matt –
A Crucial Reveal on the Flawed Science Behind Nuclear Fear
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book fundamentally changed how I understand radiation safety standards. Mike Conley delivers a meticulously researched investigation into how Hermann Muller’s Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model became the world’s default approach to radiation risk assessment—despite lacking peer review, replicable experiments, or supporting evidence.
What did I find compelling?
The book reads like a scientific detective story. Conley traces how Muller’s 1927 hypothesis—that there’s no safe dose of radiation and all doses are cumulative—gained institutional authority through a combination of flawed studies, and suppressing contradictory evidence. The author shows how Ernst Caspari’s well-designed 1946 study demonstrated a substantial safety threshold, yet was systematically discredited despite Muller privately acknowledging its validity.
The documentation is extraordinary. Dr. Edward Calabrese’s research, which forms the backbone of this book, includes thousands of letters from the Muller estate revealing private admissions that contradict public positions.
Why this this book important?
LNT-based regulations have inflated nuclear power costs for decades, hampering our best tool for addressing climate change. The book argues persuasively that these standards arose not from scientific evidence but from institutional pressures, financial interests, and post-WWII nuclear anxiety.
Sarah Stone –
The LNT Theory Book Review:
The BS of Bad Science
My first interaction with LNT and ALARA standards began when I was 18 and going to school to become an X-Ray Technologist. Studying the LNT and ALARA standards within Radiobiology and Health Physics classes allowed me to understand the scope of both and to create my own thoughts and opinions on the matter.
Still following the ALARA standards today, the LNT theory has become a hot topic for debate amongst the nuclear industry. Is little radiation safe or is no radiation safe…that is the big question and “The LNT Theory” goes through the progression of when LNT first developed, where it went wrong, and what we are currently facing today. Reading through the many different researchers and scientists and how the whole theory developed is proving to be more educational than what is taught in class. Regardless of how much a person avoids anything radioactive or nuclear, let’s face it, just existing and breathing on this plant, we are constantly exposed to low levels from natural background emitters.
Overall, this book is very well written, explains everything in a manner that someone in the public could read and begin to understand what it is we talk about, and can easily say, Bravo! Being able to read the history behind the LNT theory and understand how it came about explains a lot to myself and why others are prudent about the theory altogether. Having a stronger voice to be able to compile and put together this book can make a significant difference and encourage all to read! “Actually, you can, and the over-regulation that results does nothing to enhance survival.” (Conley, 2025). I felt that this sentence alone sums up how we as nuclear professionals feel with the restrictions on building new nuclear. It is time for the BS (bad science) to turn into GS (good science) and for nuclear to rise!
Charlie –
If climate change scares you, read this book. If running out of energy scares you, read this book. If expensive electricity scares you, read this book. Most importantly, if radiation scares you, then read this book! We don’t have to make solving our problems so hard for ourselves. Like so much else in our world, the best path forward is to stay calm and listen to seasoned experts who are intimately familiar with generations of evidence. We’re lucky to have Ed Calabrese as our expert and Mike Conley as our author, making the LNT Report understandable, interesting, and even exciting.
Frans Kopp –
What a story of hubris, deceit, pride, stubbornness, probably shame deep down. It sounds a bit like other stories about scientists deceiving (and blacklisting other scientists) because they don’t want their theories disputed.
Some of it got pretty darn technical (for me as an engineer, but not a nuclear scientist), but that is all part of the detective work by Dr Calibrese, the real hero and good writing by Tim Conley. And don’t let the technical stuff get in the way of reading the story and reflecting on how we all can work to restore public trust in good science.
R Warshawski, MD,FRCP –
As a practicing radiologist and nuclear medicine physician, I was looking to this book for answers about how to explain the risk of radiation to my patients. While Conley focused primarily on radiation with regard to nuclear power, he did not disappoint. With clarity and logical progression, he explains how this fear developed, the mistakes made, the deliberate suppression of scientific truth, and the possible benefits of low levels of radiation. He is well researched, and after reading it, I have a clearer understanding of why this fear developed and how we can reassure ourselves that this is not the danger that it has been made out to be. I am going to recommend this book to my colleagues as well as patients who are fearful of the radiation associated with needed tests.
Todd De Ryck –
Wow! The best time for this book to have been written was 70+ years ago. The second best time is now, so thank goodness Mike Conley and all who assisted in writing this book did so. This book tells the tale of the greatest scientific travesty of the 20th century, arguably in human history. The book also outlines the correction of this scientific travesty and the way forward so that radiation is well understood by all human beings and we can all have a great life, with nuclear energy as the foundation. If you are concerned about climate change, the future of this planet and all living things on it, this is a must read and the most impactful book you’ll ever read.
Mary Fran Reed, PhD, Author of ATOMIC GREEN: Nuclear Power Can Stop Climate Change –
How Bad Science Blocked a Climate Solution
Mike Conley’s The LNT Report is a riveting exposé of one of the most consequential missteps in regulatory science—the adoption of the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model for ionizing radiation. For over seventy years, this unproven model—which asserts that no amount of ionizing radiation is safe and that all exposure is cumulative—has been treated as scientific fact, shaping global nuclear policy and public perception.
Conley walks us through a decades-long tale of how “Bad Science” (BS) and “Scientific Wild-Ass Guesses” (SWAG) repeatedly trumped sound research and empirical data. Instead of embracing well-designed studies and real-world evidence from atomic bomb survivors, regulators clung to a fear-based model that inflated radiation risks and, in doing so, fueled public anxiety, increased regulatory burdens, and significantly delayed nuclear energy development.
This book reads like a true crime thriller—only the crime is scientific negligence, and the victims are rational energy policy and climate progress. Conley makes a compelling case: at low doses, ionizing radiation behaves like other potentially toxic exposures—there is a threshold below which it poses no detectable harm. In fact, such low doses may be naturally and routinely repaired by healthy biological systems.
The final chapter is a call to sanity. Conley proposes an “Optimization Model of Radiation Risk Assessment”—an evidence-based framework that balances public safety with scientific integrity. It’s a regulatory approach that could finally allow nuclear power to thrive as the safe, clean, and reliable energy source it is—precisely the kind of solution we need to combat global warming.
If we are serious about cutting carbon emissions and ensuring a livable future, it’s time to confront the flawed foundations of radiation regulation. Conley’s book is not just a must-read—it’s a rallying cry for reform. Let’s hope our policymakers and regulators are listening.
Roberto –
The LNT Report is an engaging and easy to read narrative of documented historical and science facts about one of the biggest most misunderstood issues in the nuclear energy industry. There are plenty of documented links that let the reader verify reliable evidence of the narrative.
This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand radiation harm. The author writes in simple terms for anyone to be able to follow and understand the issues with our current radiation policy and more importantly empowers the reader to understand what anyone should not fear about radiation.
The book easily guides you through an in-depth analysis and history of our current LNT/ ALARA nuclear policy. The book does its best to avoid controversial positions, simply stating scientific facts, leaving the reader to decide.
Many in the nuclear energy community may appreciate understanding how they may have been misled for almost 100 years.
This book empowers the reader to understand how good intentions can lead you away from the truth and what science is all about. Only evidence – based science can bring real safety and progress.