"Days of Whine and Roses"

[William V Lipton <liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM>]

Although I largely disagree with you, I respect your point of view.  I am

honored that you're giving me credit where credit is due, especially for my

"theory of everything."



The opinions expressed are strictly mine.

It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Let's look at the real problem, for a change.



Bill Lipton

liptonw@dteenergy.com





"Thomas E. Potter" wrote:



> Kai Kaletsch's observation is the kind that would seem to undermine the

> importance of many factors conventional wisdom would have us believe

> limit the acceptability of nuclear technology--particularly nuclear

> power technology.  When these factors are examined thoroughly and

> systematically, their importance is much diminished.  It's not about

> inadequate public involvement. The aircraft industry is being allowed to

> fix its tail with little in the way of public involvement.  It's not

> about voluntary versus involuntary.  We impose risks willy nilly with

> little thought and we endure a wide range of risks essentially

> involuntarily.  And, notwithstanding Bill Lipton's Theory of Everything,

> it's not about trust.   If it was about trust, the oil and coal

> companies would have been out of business decades ago.

>

> Howard Margolis of the University of Chicago has studied this matter

> comprehensively, and has documented his work in <Dealing with Risk>,

> subtitled <Why the Public and the Experts Disagree on Environmental

> Issues>.    It was published in 1996 by the University of Chicago

> Press.  According to Margolis, it is not very much about what we worry

> most about, but it is very much about need for the technology and how

> that need is perceived by the public and framed with risks in public

> discourse.

>

> Our unquestioning acceptance of many of the commonly accepted but

> mistaken ideas underlying much of the discussion in this thread leads us

> to do imprudent things.  Bill Lipton reads about a little cesium in a

> deer, and, responding instinctively to his hypersensitivity to public

> opinion, casts all caution aside and lunges at the opportunity to name

> the event the latest in his woefully long list of self-inflicted gunshot

> wounds to the nuclear foot.  This is the exact opposite of the the

> dispassionate, measured, and thoughtful analysis that such situations

> deserve.

>

> Thomas Potter

> ____________________________



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