Re: Ra, 25 mrem/y

[Dan Burnstein <npro1@ziplink.net>]

I am intrigued by Prof. Cohen's points below.  They stimulate me to suggest a
hypothetical web site with sliders and windows that represent natural resource
sources (oil, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, hydro, other) and a suggested mix (for
developed and developing countries) with the resulting output of KW hours and
pollution, and of course costs (raw materials, capital, and industrial accidents
including the costs of mining and transport of coal to coal burning facilities).

This 'energy policy control panel' if you will, would give consumers a great
education of the risks and benefits of various policy decisions.  For it to be
educational it would have to have the builders intelligent assumptions, their
references hyperlinked, and a place for users to have input with their gripes
with those assumptions.

This would be a great use of internet web technology, get a lot of press, and
begin to create educated consumers who can make intelligent choices.  For it to
be powerful you would need real data of all the costs - including to future
generations, the costs of waste disposal in a permanent facility, security, and
so forth.

Maybe industry would contribute some scientists and budget money and a great
science museum like in Boston, NY, or S.F. would do the virtual construction.  Of
course this is only a hypothetical suggestion.

Bernard L Cohen wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Dec 1999 KDA2921@aol.com wrote:
>
>   Many of the arguments against the proposed limits seem
> > to infer that there is an inherent right to subject future inhabitants to a
> > contributing dose.  Where does the power to subject future inhabitants to
> > such a dose originate?
>
>         --Every activity of our Society subjects future (from very near
> future -- a few minutes in the future -- to very far future) inhabitants
> to all sorts of non-consensual "doses". For example, air pollution is
> probably killing tens of thousands of Americans per year, and the chemical
> carcinogens released into the ground from coal burning will eventually
> kill a comparable number as shown in my paper in Health Physics
> 42:753ff;1982. More important, we are burning up all the fossil fuels -
> coal, oil, gas, etc at a trmendous rate, denying their use to future
> generations. The same applies to many mineral resources -- copper, tin,
> silver, etc, etc.
>         Our ethical right to do this stems from the fact that we are
> compensating these injured people by providing them with infrastructure
> and technology that allows them to thrive more than would be possible
> without these present Societal activities.
>
> >
> Bernard L. Cohen
> Physics Dept.
> University of Pittsburgh
> Pittsburgh, PA 15260
> Tel: (412)624-9245
> Fax: (412)624-9163
> e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu
>
> ************************************************************************
> The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html

************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html