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Re: Response to Ted Rockwell's article
TMI and Chernobyl no more caused health physics to lose credibility than, "British Intelligence has learned -" caused President Bush to lose credibility. They underline the rarity of inaccuracy in either! The Spinners have a Goebbelsproblem.
Frequent coal mine cave-ins kill many. Statistically (using real data, no extrapolations beyond from LNT assumption), more people were saved and benefited from TMI and Chernobyl hormesis than were killed or harmed - although I do not recommend repeating them.
Too "safe" is damaging, as with medical regulation.
Credibly, Howard Long
----- Original Message -----
From: William V Lipton
To: John Jacobus
Cc: radsafe ; know_nukes
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 4:59 AM
Subject: Re: Response to Ted Rockwell's article
Many thanx for posting this article. This is the "voice of reason" we need, but find so rarely.
IMHO, the public relations disasters for nuclear power occurred for just the reasons cited. Instead of trying to be the voice of reason, many nuclear power proponents took the opposite extreme from the antinukes, i.e. that there is no risk. Then when supposedly "impossible" events, such as TMI and Chernobyl occurred, we lost credibility.
As I've said before, our critics make us stronger. Our "friends" are killing us.
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Curies forever.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
John Jacobus wrote:
This letter appeared in today's Washington Post
--------------
Radiation: The Real Deal
...
Rockwell is right that "if you tell people there is
no danger, and they have no reason to disbelieve you,
they will remain calm."
But if you tell people there is no danger, and
instead there is only a small one, they will lose
faith, assume the worst and panic. The real dangers of
dirty bombs and power-plant attacks are not nearly as
horrific as many imagine. We should be able to calm
people by simply telling them the truth.
-- Michael A. Levi
Washington
The writer is science and technology fellow in
foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution.
Would you like to send this article to a friend? Go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/emailfriend?contentId=A37571-2003Sep19&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle
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"Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law."
Louis D. Brandeis, Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. U.S., 1928
-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail: crispy_bird@yahoo.com
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