Re: NIMBY for Nevada residents

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/11/02 9:25:50 AM Mountain Standard Time, liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM writes:



> , if you had been "fighting with all your might" to actually improve
>
> nuclear safety, eg., preventing TMI and Chernobyl (both of these were 100%
>
> preventable), instead of "perceptions," you would have been a lot more
>
> effective.


More than 99% of all accidents are preventable, in the sense that actions could have been taken to prevent them.  Automobile accidents that kill 40,000 people a year in the U. S. are almost, but not quite, entirely preventable.  The fact that accidents are preventable doesn't mean they won't ever happen, and has nothing to do with changing perception.  To take this out of the nuclear realm, and to point up once again that perception is NOT reality, look at the history of automobile seat belt use in the U. S.  As Consumer Reports once put it "Americans think they are immortal until the moment of impact."  The totally unrealistic perception that seat belts were unnecessary has been dramatically contradicted by the markedly reduced death toll where seat belts are required.  Sooner or later, reality wins.  What Bernie and I and others are working for, I believe, is to make the perceptions realistic.



Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com