Re: RADSAFE digest 2753

[antatnsu@pacbell.net]

To be sure, it is about trust.  Much about wars is about trust.  But, what has the
nuclear industry done to destroy trust in it?   I submit that one of the things is:
it has spoken too many "mea culpas" when no member of the US public has ever been
injured by radiation or radioactive material from nuclear industry activities in this
country.  It is only a few mrem, so why the fuss?  The truth is a few mrem has never
been demonstrated to hurt anyone.  We need to say that over and over again.

The nuclear industry has not  countered each statement that "one photon can cause
cancer" with the statement that we don't know that such is the truth and challenged
each person who made such statements to demonstrate the veracity of the statment.
The nuclear industry has not gone to the journalist's colleges and convinced the
students that nuclear power is good as the anti nuclear people did 20 years ago to
convince the students that nuclear power is bad.  We now have an anti nuclear media
as a result of the anti's work.
The nuclear industry has not influenced the writing of school books (as the antis
have to show nuclear power in a bad light) to show the benefits of things nuclear.
The nuclear industry has not spent millions of dollars to show the public be benefits
of things nuclear as the antis have to show all of the bad things they can say about
it.

Only one side is fighting!

ALARA, collective dose and the anti nuclear people are the nuclear industries'
enemies.

Of course there have been mistakes in the nuclear industry.  But, who, besides the
industry itself, did those mistakes hurt?  As of right now there are no credible data
that demonstrate any harm to the American people from radiation or radioactive
material used by the nuclear industry.  Why does not the nuclear industry trumpet
that fact from the rooftops?  Instead we are all caught up in the red herring of "but
what if low doses might cause harm?"  Well, lets wait until we know that they do.
Then we will know what to do to fix things.  Right now we are trying to fix a
perceived problem that we don't know exists.  That's an expensive exercise in
futility.

These are only some of the thoughts I have that cause me to blame the omnipresent and
all powerful 'antinukes' for the public's fear of radiation.

What specific weaknesses must be corrected so that the public will not be harmed by
things nuclear when there is no current evidence that they are being so harmed?

I have sometimes been accused of being childlike in my innocence.  Perhaps this is
one of those times.  And, occasionally I, too, am baffled as to why some intelligent
and educated persons act and speak in irrational  manners.  But then, humans are
emotional as well as rational.  We just have to balance the two ways of being.  It is
said: perfect love casteth out fear.  Fear of radiation should be cast out.

Al Tschaeche antatnsu@pacbell.net

William V Lipton wrote:

> I am baffled as to why some health physicists whom  I know to be intelligent and
> educated persons are so eager to be victims, always blaming the omnipresent and
> all powerful "antinukes" for everything that goes wrong.  Besides being childish,
> it diverts us from identifying and correcting our own weaknesses.
>
> Unfortunately, most of RADSAFE seems to have become:
>
> 1.  attacking the opposition's credentials
>
> 2.  comparative body counts, i.e. (coal, cars, you name it) is more dangerous
>
> 3.  It's only a few mrem, why the fuss?
>
> 4.  "It's not fair."
>
> This does not reflect well on us as a profession.
>
> The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
> It's not about dose, it's about trust.
>
> Bill Lipton
> liptonw@dteenergy.com
>


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