Re: Nuclear Power In The Media

[sandy_perle@email.fpl.com]

     I have not seen this article and only know what is mentioned in the 
     posting. IF the article is quoting the individual, as it appears to be 
     doing, the individual is supposedly describing specific actions that 
     were taken by the utility and actually happened to the worker. 
     Obviously these actions are ludicrous. However, this doesn't 
     necessarily correlate to a "failure in the radiation training process" 
     as hypothesized. I would agree that radiation protection training 
     programs have been significantly reduced due to cost cutting and 
     downsizing of training staffs. This isn't an issue involving a poor 
     training program but is one of an individual and media who were only 
     interested in increasing the emotional senses of their readers. It is 
     nothing but pure science fiction, or, an unusual imagination of a 
     worker who more than likely is building things out of proprotion. 
     Whatever the reason, the individual DID pass some training test, or 
     else he would not have been given site access. He also had to have 
     some security clearance and had been badged by health physics. Those 
     are the only facts as we know them. Everything else is conjecture.
     
     It would be nice if utility corporate communication departments, or, 
     the community speakers that the utilitys sponsor, could go out and 
     defend these types of articles and issues as raised in local 
     communities. If only THOSE people still worked for the utilities 
     still. Wonder why the company execs who are still being paid in the 
     millions aren't out there speaking. They have the time and the money 
     to do so. But that isn't going to happen.
     
     Sandy Perle
     
     
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     While this may be initially entertaining to those of us in health 
     physics and nuclear power, it underscores a failure in the radiation 
     worker training process - particularly if this individual has worked 
     at several sites as he described.  And as this article demonstrates, 
     one misinformed individual with the credibility of a "radiation 
     worker" can influence the opinions of numerous members of the general 
     public.  The area of Fremont, Ohio now may have hundreds or thousands 
     of people who think radiation workers with uptakes are airlifted to a 
     compound in Arizona, where they and their families are presumably 
     interred for life, since that radioactivity in their lungs "cannot be 
     removed".