Re: Suggestions? and MSC story to be on CBS- Misuse of language

[William V Lipton <liptonw@dteenergy.com>]

I generally avoid superlatives, but this is the dumbest suggestion I've heard in
quite a while.  As I stated on several occasions, comparative body counts don't
help.  This also makes the radiation protection community appear uncaring, i.e.,
that only mass disasters are important, and that we don't care about individual
lives.

We are all to eager to "shoot the messenger," but not very impressive when it
comes to critically looking at our mistakes.

"The real problem" is not the number of lives lost, but that the management at
Tokaimura grossly violated its own safety procedures regarding both the mass of
fissile material  in the process and the processing methods, and, as a result,
an accident that wasn't supposed to happen, did.  This is an all too familiar
story in this business, and unless we put a stop to it fast, we'll continue our
downward spiral.

As Pogo said, long ago:  "We have met the enemy and he is us."

The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com

"Franta, Jaroslav" wrote:

Journalists probably will not admit it, but I believe that one reason why

> thousands of other industrial accident deaths didn't make it on to their
> lists of the worst disasters of 1999 is the "curiosity" or "freak" factor
> associated with nuclear accidents, however small they may be relative to
> "real" disasters (which killed many people at once).
>
> One effective way to counter this pathological behavior may be by "fighting
> fire with fire," ie. by keeping track of, and, at opportune moments,
> pointing out other non-nuclear "freak" accidents in the recent past, to the
> offending publication/program.
> Although radsafers may find this to be a somewhat macabre suggestion (I
> think it is), it will likely enjoy a greater degree of "success" with media
> editors/programmers and with the public, than simply presenting cold
> statistics. (Who is it that said "numbers do not a news story make" ?)
> ...

> =========================
>
> Comments anyone ?
>
> regards,
>
> Jaro
> frantaj@aecl.ca
> ************************************************************************
> The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html