Cold-war era secrecy is one of the causes of radiophobia. The keep-it-quiet
approach would only perpetuate it. And it couldn't be successfully
contained, anyway, because anybody can buy or build a radiation detector, or
take samples and send off for analysis.....
No, the only approach is public education, and education of first
responders, and (god help us) of politicians and the media, in the face of
opportunistic screaming by antinukes.
What fills me with despair is that the authorities seem very slow to take up
the required education tasks.
Mark Sonter
-----Original Message-----
From: John Andrews [mailto:andrewsjp@chartertn.net]
Sent: Wednesday, 26 February 2003 2:06 PM
To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Cc: J. J. Rozental
Subject: Re: Nova - Dirty Bombs - Who is their expert - FYI
J. J. Rozental wrote:
><snip>
>
>If you consider response for developed countries like USA, that have
enough
>equipment and personal, material resources, economic resources, medical
>support and Waste Repository to transfer the waste generated, the technical
>response is not the more complex problem. If you consider developing
>countries or even those with good level for technical response, the
>situation is completely different, taking into account the capacity of
each.
>Not only technical response was the main aspect of Goiania's radiological
>accident, but also the management of conflicts - social, psychological,
>political, economic, and misunderstanding problems had to be faced in
>Goiania. Of these, stigmatization and discrimination against the victims
and
>against the main products of the city (state). - No dear colleagues, it
is
>not only the technical response to deal with during an accident, but rather
>all the above mentioned conflicts present lessons that must be analyzed
to
>improve safety culture and experience to be shared.
>
<snip>
>Jose de Julio Rozental
>
>
>
My thought while reading this is that perhaps we should ignore the
radioactivity of the dirty bomb. I mean hide the reality of the
radioactivity from the general population! The bomb can do local damage
and the radioactivity will do little real damage even over the lifetime
of the exposed individuals. If they are never told of the
radioactivity, then the psychological trauma will never occur. What
would happen if we did not look for radioactivity or radiation? What
would happen if we took our readings and called them all zero to the
press and the government controllers? Would we all not be better off in
the long run. The Soviet Union did this in Chelybinsk! Of course that
was a MAJOR release. But they did not tell anyone about it for what, 25
years! Nor do most people in the US, or the world for that matter, know
anything about that event. Perhaps this would be a better way to handle
the dirty bomb scenario.
Just a thought.
John Andrews
Knoxville, Tennessee
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