Re: Request for suggestion

["Raymond A. Hoover" <rayhoover@hotmail.com>]

Last year the Ukraine had over 300 deaths due to coal mining accidents.


>From: Jim Muckerheide <jmuckerheide@delphi.com>
>Reply-To: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
>To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Re: Request for suggestion
>Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 09:52:41 -0600 (CST)
>
>Bernard L Cohen wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, William V Lipton wrote:
> >
> > > I think that you have become too immersed in your own arguments.  
>Public
> > > concerns about nuclear power are not over a theoretical, incremental 
>increase
> > > in the cancer rate.  The concern is that many members of the public do 
>not
> > > trust the utilities or the government to operate the technology 
>safely; eg.,
> > > TMI, Chernobyl, and the many DOE fiascos.  Unfortunately, there are 
>enough
> > > incidents out there to lend credibility to the anti-nuke arguments.
> >
> >         --For my argument, no trust is required. Just consider the 
>record
> > for the past 30 years. Even if they say we have been lucky, we would 
>have
> > to have several melt-downs every year to cause as many deaths as coal
> > burning air pollution. Let the anti-nukes say what they think may happen
> > with nuclear plants -- still the number of deaths would be many times 
>less
> > than the number from coal burning.
>
>OTOH, you need more than a few meltdowns if TMI killed <1 (and would 
>actually
>be +<1 based on hormetic dose-response); and though Chernobyl is NOT a
>"meltdown," by exploding and dispersing the core directly to the 
>environment,
>even it killed 1-3 from thyroid cancer (due to treatment failure), with 
>about
>1800 (treatable) thyroid cancers - and then only because of no evacuation 
>nor
>interdiction of ingestion pathways? (comparing the 31 workers to coal 
>miners).
>
>Regards, Jim
>============
>
> > > Trust will NOT be restored by comparative body counts (eg., "Chernobyl 
>killed
> > > 1000 people , but coal killed 1002; hence nuclear is safer."
> >
> >         --We are not talking about a slight difference. The difference 
>is
> > a factor of 1000 or more, >10,000 vs <10 deaths per year on average. 
>This
> > difference is not subsantially changed by different opinions about 
>trust,
> > unless they claim that there will be several meltdowns per year.
> >
> > ************************************************************************
> > The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> > information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
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>The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
>information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html

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