Re: stop the madness

[Tim <tstead@ntirs.org>]

As I said before, none of the original designers ever

said that an accident was not possible.  No one with

half a brain would ever say that an accident was not

possible because, after all, why would they need a

containment if an accident were not possible?



The "they assured us that it couldn't happen" was

likely started by Walter Cronkite during his infamous

"I don't know about you, but I am SCARED" monologue on

national news that night.



Just like the "Too cheap to meter" quote, it has been

twisted around and re-stated so many times such that

people start to believe it.  After all, when you

repeat a lie enough times, people start to believe it.



Even after all of this, even with the capability to

track down the fantom reactor designer who said that

an accident was not possible, Dateline repeated that

claim in their lackluster review of TMI a few months

back.  When I sent a message to the producer, the

response I got back on that particular issue was

something to the effect of, "everybody knows that the

industry told us that an accident couldn't happen."



In other words, they did zero research on the subject

and just took the word of Michael Gray, the Rolling

Stone reporter whom they interviewd as an "expert"

who, by the way, just so happened to be the leading

screen writer for the movie, "The China Syndrome."



Go figure.



Regards,

Tim Steadham, P.E.



--- Jerry Cohen <jjcohen@PRODIGY.NET> wrote:

> I'd like to thank those who responded to my question

> on the source of  "too

> cheap to meter" and   clarified that subject so

> well. However, I saw no

> response to my other query on who suggested that

> nuclear power was perfectly

> safe.

> For example, following the TMI

> incident/accident/disaster/fiasco (U pick), I

> recall seeing  news coverage to the effect that

> "they" assured us that it

> couldn't happen and now it has! You can't trust them

> etc. etc. Who are the

> THEY referred to?

> At that time, the most authoritative study on

> nuclear safety was the 1974

> Rasmussen report

> (WASH-1400). This was a probabilistic risk

> assessment that indicated an

> accident of TMI magnitude (0 -10 deaths) was not

> highly unlikely (even if

> you buy into the LNT nonsense). So, who was it that

> suggested nuclear

> accidents can't happen? Maybe Norm can help with

> this one.



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