[ RadSafe ] LOBA SATIRE REDUX - Break from playing whack a mole regarding magic radioactivity detox pills being hawked by con men

[Stewart Farber]

Hello all,

For those that have had just about enough playing or witnessing the game of
whack a mole as it pops up here and there with one nonsensical technical
claim or the other by a technical mole, and could use a break, they may
enjoy reading my original “Loss of Blade Accident” [LOBA] satire written
back in 1981 after the President of a wind turbine manufacturing company was
killed at one of his own windmills when it threw a blade. This LOBA satire
has been referred to many times on Radsafe and after it was published in
1981 and was reproduced widely in various newsletters and elsewhere. I was
informed this letter was read at the plenary session of some national
meeting on environmental risks as an example of the use of satire in making
people think about risk related issues. I have always felt that Satire cuts
through a lot of defenses people have in considering information contrary to
their preconceived biases, and as a real bonus enrages near-religious
environmental and public health zealots we have all witnessed who have no
sense of humor, and cannot bear being skewered or their pompous balloons
pricked, so to speak.

See the following link for the original news story reporting the unfortunate
death or a Mr. Terrance Mehrkham, my LOBA Satire [submitted with a cover
letter noting it was a Satire,  but published by the newspaper as a serious
letter], a bunch of letters-to-the-Editor which soon followed my submission
-- the first few of which did not realize what I wrote was even a satire.
Some of the initial letters are as funny to me as my satire.  See link below
for LOBA series:

http://www.farber.info/FARBER%20AUTHORED/Windmill%20Satire%20Letter%20and%20
Responses.pdf

Obviously, my LOBA satire was a play on what with nuclear energy is the
so-called LOCA [Loss of Coolant Accident ] -- a key design basis accident
used in analyzing the potential impact of a nuclear plant accident which
determines key plant design details like the Containment design [ and
maximum leak rate ], the nature of the ECCS [Emergency Core Cooling System],
etc., etc. So anyone in the nuclear business immediately recognizes the
tongue-in-cheek nature of my referencing a LOBA. 

[NOTE: IF ANY LINKS SHOWN IN THIS NOTE GET BROKEN UP IN POSTING TO RADSAFE,
COPY THE ENTIRE LINK AND PASTE IT INTO YOUR BROWSER TO GET TO THE URL]

To see a very impressive real video of a recent LOBA at a large commercial
wind turbine in Denmark that happened to be caught on film, see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nSB1SdVHqQ

If anyone knows Danish, I'd like to know what the commentator said on video
when he saw this accident occur. It was probably not G rated. :-)

See the link below for a serious recent report about accidents, injuries,
and fatalities involving wind turbine electric generation which shows that
at least 88 people have died  - 63 workers [mostly falls], and 25 members of
the public from transportation accidents in shipping the thousands of tons
of huge components for wind turbine over the road.  See:

http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/page4.htm