[LINK] Radiation

Robin Whittle rw at firstpr.com.au
Thu Mar 17 03:50:35 AEDT 2011


Hi Tom,

You wrote:

> Robin,
> I have been reading your writings for nearly a quarter century and have
> been admiring of your eloquence and mastery over the English language.

Faint praise perhaps?  You could have said that I had some good ideas
and reasonable judgement.  To hell with eloquence etc.


> Generally I have enjoyed what I read. 

OK.


> You have been actively involved in important civic issues that have been
> of tremendous economic value to Australia (local loop et al); even
> though we lost at the time, the pigeon has now come home to roost with
> the NBN and may in fact reward your diligent work in the past.

Do you think your your condescending value judgements will improve how
people think of you.

I am opposed to the monolithic monopolistic NBN, especially from a
government with a policy of Internet censorship.  I never wanted such a
thing.


> I am personally sorry that I had to criticise a fellow justice
> campaigner.

Sorry to disappoint you . . .


> However... (you know there had to be a however) - the facts of the
> matter are that without Nuclear power, the world is unfortunately doomed
> to a rather dim economic future.

Now my BS detector is going off the scale.


> The Coal lobby would love nothing more than widely published beat-ups
> about Nuclear plants failing wholesale. After all it allows them to
> continue spewing "nearly harmless" (cough - Bullshi&) carbon into our
> atmosphere.
> [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/images/CO2_emissions_percapita.p
> ng]

Sure, coal, oil etc. have serious problems too.


> What would convince me that the situation in Japan was out of control ?
> 
> Well firstly, the Japanese would have to close the Domes over the power
> plants. 

What domes?  Check the damage photos and the reactor diagrams:

  http://www.firstpr.com.au/jncrisis/#images

Do you think anyone will not recognise your lack of knowledge of the
subject.  There are no domes.  Don't you follow the Internet news sites
or watch TV?  The diagrams and photos are all over the Net now.


> This is what they would do IF they felt that containment wasn't
> possible.
> Then I would expect the Japanese Prime Minister would announce a state
> of Emergency in relation to the power plants.

Containment has failed and is not possible.

There is a state of emergency and . . .  the evacuation area has been
widened 3km  next day 10km  in the afternoon 20km  on the third day
people within 30km are told to stay indoors. (I transcribed this
word-for-word as I replied to your message, from
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/ live.


> Failing the above two events, in that sequence, I guess an enormous bang
> might convince me.
> Apart from that, no, sorry, any discussion of what MIGHT occur is
> unnecessary (IMHO) gossip.

Tom, if I was driving north, ahead of you, and came to a bridge which
seemed unsafe for traffic, I might drive south instead.  When your car
approaches mine, what do you want me to do?  Flag you down and warn you,
or wave out and call "Have a nice day!"?

If I had dropped a tree across the road to prevent anyone from driving
onto the bridge, would you regard this and an act of disruption.  Would
you be offended at my note on the tree warning of the dangerous bridge
ahead?

If I had done neither, or if you had ignored my attempts to protect you
and your family, I wonder if, as your car plunged into the river,  you
would be cursing me driving south without warning you.  But by your
current arguments, I would have been totally justified in saying
nothing, since so-far, no car had run off the bridge.


> Our contretemps today 

So eloquent . . .

> has convinced me to write about the real economic
> issues behind Nuclear power, energy consumption, manufacturing and
> survival (which I will do over the next week). For an eye opener, could
> I recommend linkers visit:
> 
> Energy Decline and National GDP in 2050: The Growth of Destitution
> http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/3230 [Conclusion]
> http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/3222 [Part 1]

OK - I tentatively conclude you are a one-eyed booster for the nuclear
industry and nothing short of you or your family being killed by
radiation will probably change your mind.

Can you convince me otherwise?

  - Robin



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