Re: The FEAR is Our own worst enemy. (Re)

[Bob Flood <bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

At 01:20 AM 2/15/00 -0600, you wrote:
>
>> It is impossible to demonstrate something has no risk.
>
>Because . . .  (?) few (if any) objects or activities have no risk.

No, it's because you can't prove a negative. For example, let's have you
prove that did not rob a bank yesterday. Identify every bank that you
didn't rob, the witnesses that saw you not rob them, and the FBI report
identifying all the fingerprints that aren't yours.

You really can't prove a negative.

And this is the environment in which the nuclear industry is required to
operate. The highly visible and vocal opposition demands that the industry
be eradicated because it cannot prove that it isn't killing people. The
opposition can't prove that it IS killing people, but they don't seem to
feel there's any reason why they should - they are very comfortable with
the idea that it's the industry's obligation to prove they don't. How
convenient. It's a pity we have a press that can't figure this out. And as
long as the press don't get wise to this technique, the opposition will be
far more effective at scaring people than we ever will be at undoing this
damage.

But the question remains, how do we change this?

Bob Flood
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
bflood@slac.stanford.edu
(650) 926-3793

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