Re: Russian space probe hysteria!

[Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 12:31 20.11.1996 -0600, you wrote:
>Regarding the comment about the Australian's over reacting... Due you think
>they were concerned about the Pu, or that fact that large chunks of metal 
>were about to come down?  I remember there was a lot of concern when SKYLAB
>reentered the atmosphere many years ago.  And there have been other instances
>where governments took precautions, such as when the Russian satellite
>crashed into Canada.  I wonder if too many people on RADSAFE are looking
>to bash the concerns of non-HPs.  
>
>Regarding the statement about the time the Australian's took mobilized
>their forces, remember that they are 15 (or so) hours ahead of us.  
>
>============================================================================

John (and radsafers), 

Thank you for your comment which nicely contrasts to most of the others on
the same subject. There is no sense in always telling the members of the
public that they are silly, they do not understand what is going on and that
one would of course like to teach and educate them, if enough money was
available...... The concerns of the public - and even if they really are
silly! - have to be treated seriously and patiently and not arrogant. No
government or statesman can ignore the concerns of the public - again, even
if they were silly! 

Radsafers complain about the ridiculous way the mass media handle questions
like radioactivity or nuclear power. Mostly they are right. But when a paper
reports about mobilization of police and military because of a spacecraft
which might fall on a territory this is obviously taken serious by the same
persons. Who knows whether it is correct or at least not exaggerating?

Since I have been involved a lot in emergency planning I know quite a lot
about the Sovjet satellite which went down over Canada. The power source was
in that case a nuclear reactor, so it cannot be compared with the Mars probe
directly, but large parts came down and it was quite a job to clean up the
area - not to talk about the costs involved. This was no funny story and I
do not think that it would be funny if a satellite or a probe would come
down not in an unpopulated area as it was the case in Canada, but in a
heavily populated one.

Finally, thank you for mentioning the time difference. Obviously some people
are 
not even able to imagine that life might be different in other parts of the
world, not even that time might be different. 
Schoenhofer
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