[ RadSafe ] "Do Not Read This If You Are Anti-Nuclear Energy"

[Bob Cherry]

Subject opinion article in the New York Times quotes our Bernie Cohen who
researched stories by the New York Times about different types of accidents
between 1974-78 (prior to Three Mile Island):

On an average, there were 120 entries per year on motor vehicle accidents,
which kill 50,000 Americans each year; 50 entries per year on industrial
accidents, which kill 12,000; and 20 entries per year on asphyxiation
accidents, which kill 4,500; note that for these the number of entries,
which represents roughly the amount of newspaper coverage, is approximately
proportional to the death toll they cause. But for accidents involving
radiation, there were something like 200 entries per year, in spite of there
not having been a single fatality from a radiation accident for over a
decade.

Another problem, especially in TV coverage, was use of inflammatory
language. We often heard about "deadly radiation" or "lethal radioactivity,"
referring to a hazard that hadn't claimed a single victim for over a decade,
and had caused less than five deaths in American history. But we never heard
about "lethal electricity," although 1,200 Americans were dying each year
from electrocution; or about "lethal natural gas," which was killing 500
annually with asphyxiation accidents. (Bernard Cohen, "The Nuclear Energy
Option," pp. 58-59.)

 

The opinion article:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/do-not-read-this-if-you-are
-anti-nuclear-energy/

 

Bob Cherry