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Re: Reactor Containments and Terrorist Attacks
<<And we should also keep repeating until people tire of it, that Chernobyl
killed 30 people, not 30,000 (see UNSCEAR 2000).>>
Just one clarification--those (34) people were firefighters, not members of
the general public.
Jack Earley
Radiological Engineer
Enercon Services, Inc.
6525 N. Meridian, Suite 503
OKC, OK 73116
phone: 405-722-7693
fax: 405-722-7694
jearley@enercon.com
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Rockwell" <tedrock@CPCUG.ORG>
To: "Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>; "Norman Cohen"
<ncohen12@HOME.COM>; <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>
Sent: October 10, 2001 12:02 p.m.
Subject: RE: Reactor Containments and Terrorist Attacks
> > What is more propaganda, what causes more
> confusion of stock exchanges, industry, people
>
> Franz:
>
> In a rational world, an attack on either a spent fuel pool or a reactor
> containment would be reported on an inner page of the papers, stating that
> some damage was done to the facility, but there was no public hazard.
>
> However, in the world we live in, people in the nuclear community have
> generally supported the idea that radioactivity is a uniquely hazardous
> activity, noting that you can't see, hear, taste, smell or feel radiation
> (and neglecting to point out that radiation is uniquely easy to detect
> compared with chemical or biological hazards). So we fuel the panic and
the
> news media love it. This could in fact aid the terrorists by creating
some
> terrible headlines.
>
> The Lochbaums and Leventhals and Makhajanis spread the word, but the word
> they spread are based on the "safety scenarios" we have already created.
>
> It's worth noting that a potential hazard has two separable aspects:
> vulnerability and consequences. If the consequences are not very severe
(as
> in a nuclear facility) then the vulnerability (how easy is it for a
saboteur
> to get in) becomes much less critical. When people ask about
vulnerability
> of nuclear facilities, we should stress than we've done a pretty good job
> there, but the key fact is that a terrorist couldn't produce much of a
> hazard even if he had full run of the place.
>
> That attitude toward nuclear safety is completely opposite toward our
> attitude to date. We have always assumed that if the dragon ever got out,
> he would devour the whole earth, but do not fear! we have him locked up in
a
> very strong cage. By emphasizing containment, we create the impression
that
> TMI was a Chernobyl accident in a bottle. If the bottle would break,
> thousands would die. In fact, if containment was quite leaky, it is easy
to
> show that there still would have been little public hazard (assuming you
> don't equate public hazard with 4 mrem). And we should also keep
repeating
> until people tire of it, that Chernobyl killed 30 people, not 30,000 (see
> UNSCEAR 2000).
>
> Ted Rockwell
>
>
>
>
>
>
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