Re: Saturn Probe Pu Power?

["Schoenhofer" <schoenho@via.at>]

Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 Wien
AUSTRIA
Tel./Fax: +43-1-4955308
Mobiltel.: +43-664-3380333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

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> Von: Chris Davey <cdavey@med.phys.ualberta.ca>
> An: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Betreff: Re: Saturn Probe Pu Power?
> Datum: Montag, 05. Mai 1997 23:32
> 
> Perhaps I should have been more explicit.  My friend does not have a
> science background, he is studying at the University of Alberta, I think
> doing a degree suitable for becoming a teacher.  He has looked at the
> address where more of this 'interesting stuff' resides, and has obviously
> found it to be convincing.  This is another example of the problem
> involved in convincing the general public that this stuff is pure
> paranoia.  I'd like to think I could do that for him, and, as an
> extension, perhaps the same information could be used more generally.
> This web site is certainly well organized, and I know from past postings
> here on radsafe that it is hardly unique.  I could try to answer each
> point on a 'point by point' basis, but I don't think I have enough
> 'credibility as an expert' to stand a chance of convincing him.  Sorry,
> the posts about fish, bowling balls and fertilization are cute, but they
> won't work for such a person.
> 
> Address was:  http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~icousin/
> 
> Thanks again.  Perhaps someone from NASA is on here who could answer?
> 
> Chris Davey
>         RSO  Cross Cancer Institute  11560 University Avenue
>         Edmonton   Alberta   Canada  T6G 1Z2
>         (403)432-8616   fax 432-8615    email cdavey@med.phys.ualberta.ca
> 
>
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In my office I write on what was intended to be a place mat. The
inscription reads, "I have made up my mind, do not disturb me with the
facts". For this kind of people it seems to be pure waste of time, to try
to discuss on the basis of facts. This problem is not restricted to nuclear
related subjects. Does anyone ask a aircraft pilot how to make cheese? Does
anyone ask a cheesemaker how to fly an aeroplane? Do you go to a grocer
store, when you want to place your money in the stock exchange? (Find more
examples.....) But on nuclear matters everybody is an expert and can tell
the people who have learnt matters for decades and worked with it for
decades, what nuclear power really is like.But again - is this really
restricted to nuclear power? Politicians make politic with the help of
opinion polls, where people are asked about their opinion about things, of
which they do not understand anything. Should not the politicians and the
opinion leaders instead try to stay on the ground?

Sorry, I got a little angry. I deleted the original message - but I think I
read something about the deadly plutonium, which is the most toxic chemical
on the earth. Not to talk about the difference of Pu-238 and Pu-239, but
has nobody wondered, why the maximum permissible levels are much higher
than for Ra-226 and Ra-228, Pb-210 and Po-210? So please note, that the
most toxic chemical has been produced by "nature". 

You wrote that your friend wants to become a teacher. The so called
environmentalists are very clever - they work on a long term scale. They
started for instance in Austria in the middle of the seventies and their
targets were then young people and (young) teachers. Well - they succeeded
to educate them and to disseminate their ideas to the younger generation. 

Franz