[ RadSafe ] Agreeing with Franz on "dogma"

[Bill Prestwich]

I think it is possible to expose the falseness in the anti-nuclear movement
within the LNT approach as used by regulators.  The argument used by this
movement is that science has shown no level of radiation is safe. In the
first place there is no scientific definition of safe. What the opponents of
nuclear power are claiming is that safe is defined as a process that has
zero probability of harm. With that definition almost nothing is safe. The
reply to these people is that they are claiming that a probability of one in
a trillion that an action could cause some harm means that action should be
abolished. Instead I think one could argue that the LNT is over restricting
and hence overly careful in protecting the public.

Bill Prestwich

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of KARAM, PHILIP
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 2:41 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Agreeing with Franz on "dogma"

I don't think that the word "dogma" is at all derisive in and of itself. In
biochem we learned the "central dogma of molecular biology" (which you can
find in any number of textbooks in precisely that phrasing), which was
DNA-RNA-protein. In Sunday school (Catholic) we learned a number of dogmas
of the Catholic Church. Used properly, the word is descriptive, not loaded.

In the case of LNT, the use of the word dogma is certainly appropriate in a
number of cases.

-As Franz pointed out, it is NOT appropriate for the scientific debate,
which continues to be lively.
-In the regulatory realm (and in the area of ALARA), LNT certainly has
become dogma in the sense that it is the central belief behind the way that
regulations are written and ALARA is practiced - and if LNT were to be shown
to be false then we might well have to re-think the way that we practice
ALARA as well as the way we regulate.
-And among the anti-nuclear and anti-radiation activists LNT is most
certainly dogma in that it is virtually the only argument they use to demand
that all reactors be shut down and all use of radiation that can expose the
public be banned - if LNT is shown to be false then their central argument
crumbles to the ground.

The word itself is neither positive nor negative - it is simply descriptive.
But, like the word "evolution," it has come to mean more to some than ought
to be the case.

Andy


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Peter Crane
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 2:02 PM
To: RADSAFE
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Agreeing with Franz on "dogma"

It's a pleasure to be able to agree with Franz for once. This use of loaded
words such as "dogma" and "cult" to denigrate the LNT (and, on the other
side, the hormesis theory) adds nothing to the debate. The propagandistic
purpose is too obvious. Maybe that's OK if you are just preaching to the
choir, since you are not out to change any minds, but trying to convert
opponents by calling them cultists following a dogma? It doesn't work.

I'd love to know more about infighting in the Austrian bureaucracy, Franz. I
thought the watchword there was Schlamperei, of taking things easy and not
too seriously, but I suppose I'm forgetting my Kafka, plus the golden rule
of organizations -- governmental, academic, etc. -- that the smaller the
stakes, the more vicious the internal battles can be. By the way, if you
know Bad Ischl, Villa Rothstein, my great-grand-uncle's summer home, was
where my grandmother played as a child, back around 1901-1903. Das gibt's
nur einmal, das kommt nicht wieder....

-- Peter Crane, Seattle
NRC Counsel for Special Projects (retired)
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