----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 6:34
AM
Subject: RE: Nova - Dirty Bombs - Who is
their expert - FYI
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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