Re: Dwarfing Chernobyl

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@mediaone.net>]

Dr. Weiß, 

I sympathize with your philosophy but it seems fundamentally wrong. 

You propose a political position. Such a position should not be taken under
the rubric of a technical or scientific professional affiliation. I presume
you intend to indict all of the nuclear weapons states plus Israel, plus all
of Europe, Australia, etc., who have willingly (and successfully) sought to
live under the "nuclear umbrella" for 50 years of generally sustained
"mutually assured co-existence". (We could presumably and appropriately laud
South Africa for giving up its weapons.) While I have never worked in the
weapons program, it seems that you would also indict all those on radsafe who
have been associated with the nuclear weapons program.

(Not addressing Dr. Weiss' comments, as a separate matter, Fritz is also
fundamentally right about the small risk that exists to those outside the
immediate vicinity from the use of nuclear weapons, short of the thousands of
weapons in a global exchange that would invoke the "global winter" scenarios.
We can not become as innumerate as high school dropouts (graduates?) when it
comes to the images of nuclear weapons, as though basic science, and
arithmetic, doesn't apply to the limited range and nature of effects beyond
the zone in which effects are well documented, in the context of the extent of
land mass and population (see eg "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" 1977, and
RERF on the range of advserse effects to populations, ie, roughly the
population exposed to >~50 cSv of gamma and neutron dose).

It is discouraging when our characterizations of scientific facts to make
political statements are equivalent to the anti's who make such (dishonest and
effective) political mis-characterizations about radiation.  

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
muckerheide@mediaone.net

> Hello Fritz,
> 
> you may be right in the one point or other, but I think it is more
> important that all of us radsafers should in common condemn any
> political/militaric strategy that aims to or willingly accepts the use
> of ionizing radiation as a weapon against civil population.
> 
> --
> Harald Weiss                 weiss@ki.comcity.de
> Preetzer Strasse 263         Tel  +49 431 7859659
> D-24147 Kiel                 Fax  +49 431 7859658
> ..