[LINK] Radiation

[Jan Whitaker]

At 02:20 PM 16/03/2011, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
>Nuclear-reactor energy sure is one good thing to have fear, uncertainty
>and doubt about. This seems healthy to me, and surely not irrational in
>terms of future world energy needs. If FUD prevents another plant, good!

I'll go back to a comment I made about the Christchurch earthquakes. 
You build things appropriate to the area. If a place is stable and 
has weather margins within reason (no cyclones, no tsunamis, possibly 
no snowstorms and freezing temps), why not? That doesn't address the 
issue of the spent fuel rods, granted, but FUD isn't helpful, for 
nuclear, coal, oil, or any other energy source you want to develop. 
Coal mines collapse. Wind farms require manufacturing to make the 
towers, so there are non-green issues involved. Same with solar 
panels. Oil platforms blow up. Pipelines break (Alaska). Tankers 
runaground (Valdez).

I'm not pro or anti any of those, including nuclear. I'd wager more 
people have died from coal mining than in all the nuclear accidents 
combined. It's a nasty business, too. Did you know that half the 
early oil explorers died trying to find oil in the Texas oil fields?

I don't have an answer, but FUD won't solve any of it.

As Fernando, I lived about 30 miles from a nuclear power plant in 
Arizona, where the prevailing winds would have put anything nasty 
right over Phoenix. I visited a nuclear plant in South Carolina last 
summer not far from my sister. Not sure where the wind would take 
their nasties. They combine nuclear, hydro, and coal in their 
diversification mix.

A thought that struck me the other night was the above ground nuclear 
testing that went on. Any countries still doing that? What about the 
dirty weapons used in the Iraq war? There are lots of stupid things 
happening with dangerous materials.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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