Re: Re[2]: Averill's Editorial

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


On Wed, 31 Jul 1996, Keith Welch wrote:

> corrupted (as the LN-T model has).  Many folks have recently noted how LN-T
> has been twisted into something it should not have been.  Whether we throw
> this model away or not, we'll have to replace it with SOMETHING. How we
> communicate our model to the world so that it is wisely implemented is the
> important thing - not whether or not the model is completely irrefutable.
> As usual all the above is MHO and is worth what you paid for it.
> Keith Welch
> Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
> Newport News VA
> welch@cebaf.gov
> 
 ---We don't necessarily have to replace it with something if science 
can't give the necessary info. For example, there is no widely used model 
for air pollution from coal burning, so there is very little public fear 
of it, especially after partial clean up technologies are emplaced. If it is 
accepted that LNT grossly exaggerates the risk from 
low level radiation --- my paper shows that and no one seems willing to 
challenge it, at least in public or to me in person --- and we stop 
saying how many poeple will die from various low level exposures, maybe 
the public fear will decline and we can proceed rationally with burying 
high level waste and low level waste, operating nuclear plants, transporting 
radioactive materials, etc.