Re: Comments on "Dwarfing Chernobyl"

["Fritz A. Seiler" <faseiler@nmia.com>]

Hi all,

        I regret that, from the beginning, some political and - at best - moral
judgments were injected into a purely scientific or technical discussion about
the effects of a nuclear war.  It behooves us as radiation specialists to know
which claims are realistic and which are not.  If one of us speaks up as a
citizen or as an individual, that is one thing; if you speak up as a radiation
specialist, then you have to know enough or at least learn enough about the
subject to give a professionally considered opinion.

        I know from my own experience that it is sometimes hard to separate
one's aversion to a nuclear war from the results of a professional judgment
whichever way that may go.  Personally, I think factual professional statements
on this mailing list are highly appropriate, whereas moral judgments are of
somewhat doubtful interests, and political calls to action, whatever their
merits, should definitely be sent elsewhere.  That kind of judgment is an
intensely personal affair, and we do not need anyone to tell us what to think,
whichever way our thinking may go!

Sorry for climbing onto the soap box,

Fritz

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Fritz A. Seiler, Ph.D.
Principal
Sigma Five Associates
P.O. Box 14006
Albuquerque, NM 87191-4006

Tel. 505-323-7848
Fax. 505-293-3911
e-mail: faseiler@nmia.com

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