AW: Happy "Too Cheap To Meter" day! [FW]

[Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Franz Schoenhofer

PhD, MR iR

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna

AUSTRIA

phone (international) -43-699-1168-1319

phone (national) 0699-1168-1319

 

 

If anybody is to blame for this slogan, it would be the ghostwriter who

wrote Strauss’ speech, because he obviously thought he should write a

kind of a fairy tale about a bright future, forgetting about reality. It

might have been to cheap to meter – but the lump-sum for the non-metered

electricity would sure have paid for the generation and the transmission

plus a nice profit. I cannot see in these words, that the intention was

that electricity should be free of charge!!!!! Do I miss something

because of my limited knowledge of English???

 

Secondly regional famines are not a matter of history, we do not travel

effortlessly under the seas and for most developing countries diseases

and early death are a fact as it was fifty years ago. 

 

This pathetic speech was nothing but an allegory for an unreal dream.

 

Let us leave it to that and ignore our friends, the “antis” and

“greens”, just as they deserve it. 

 

 

Best regards,

 

Franz

 

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-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] Im Auftrag von Franta,

Jaroslav

Gesendet: Freitag, 17. September 2004 14:42

An: Radsafe (E-mail)

Betreff: Happy "Too Cheap To Meter" day! [FW]

 

A colleague posted this on another listserv yesterday..... 

Jaro 

-----Original Message----- 

From: Brown, Morgan [mailto:brownmj@aecl.ca] 

Sent: Thursday September 16, 2004 5:13 PM 

To: Cdn-Nucl-L (E-mail) 

Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] Happy "Too Cheap To Meter" day! 

It was 50 years ago today that Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss, chairman of

the US Atomic Energy Commission, said: 

"It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their

homes electrical energy too cheap to meter, will know of great periodic

regional famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel

effortlessly over the seas and under them and through the air with a

minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a lifespan

far longer than ours as disease yields and man comes to understand what

causes him to age."

Strauss was speaking to the National Association of Science Writers in

New York City, and was being poetic about his vision of the future.

"Too cheap to meter" was just one of his litany of phrases, but it is

the only one which has been remembered.   In subsequent years, attempts

were made to pin it to the nuclear industry as a whole, as if one man's

vision had been a promise.  It has been repeatedly inflicted on the

public, because it's cute, catchy and empty of substance.  Amazingly, it

gets dragged up even today, because some people and organizations have

nothing new to say.

Strauss comment was not a promise of the nuclear industry.  I compiled a

number of quotes from the time period, before and after Strauss' speech;

none indicate anything but a rational technical approach to the

economics of nuclear power.  

To read further: 

1) visit www.cns-snc.ca 

2) click on "Media" on the side bar 

3) scroll down to the "CNS Response to Media Articles and Reports on

Nuclear Science and Technology" section 

4) click "Too Cheap To Meter?" 

Or go directly to http://www.cns-snc.ca/media/toocheap/toocheap.html 

cheers 

Morgan Brown, P.Eng. 

*   Chair of the Chalk River Branch 

*   Webmaster 

Canadian Nuclear Society / Société Nucléaire Canadienne 

www.cns-snc.ca 

(613) 584-8811 extn 4247 

Fax: (613) 584-8220 

brownmj@aecl.ca