No subject

Human error, organisational or technical problems, natural disasters or 
terrorist attack, sabotage or acts of war mean that even the newest and 
most sophisticated can lead to significant radioactive leaks similar to 
Chernobyl and Fukushima."

It is a shame that Greenpeace has so little confidence in their position 
that they feel the need to "lawyer lie" (say things that, while taken on 
their face are not untrue, but that are intended to make people believe 
things that are false.)  In this case a truer statement would be, "No 
human construct is guaranteed safe."  Indeed, even "nature" is not without 
its hazards, as the multiple mass extinctions that happened without human 
assistance testify. 

Nuclear power has risks associated with it, but on an energy unit basis 
the are not as great in routine operation as coal, nor as great in 
catastrophic failure as hydro.  That Greenpeace choose to present the 
risks of nuclear power in isolation to me says they are either ignorant 
(which I don't believe) or dishonest.
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I prefer to view the problem as being the definition of "safe". As used 
here by Greenpeace and Mike, "safe" is synonymous with "absolutely risk 
free". But nobody uses the term this way in colloquial speech. When we say 
it is "safe to cross the street" or "safe to go swimming" or "safe to fly 
in a plane" we don't mean that these activities are risk free, we mean 
that the level of risk is acceptable, not inordinately high, or comparable 
to the risks we assume in normal everyday living.  If the BIER committee 
had used the normal definition of safe, they would have found that there 
IS such a thing as a safe level of radiation exposure.   EPA would admit 
that there are safe levels of residential radon. ... And most of us would 
be out of work.

Clayton J. Bradt
Principal Radiophysicist
NYS Dept. of Health
Biggs Laboratory, Room D486A
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12201-0509

518-474-1993

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