Learning the Right Nuclear Energy Lessons

[wtmusic]

"...This is why (we) need a change of paradigm. What studies such as the ones above actually show is that:

• Safely operated nuclear plants save lives every day by not polluting our environment as does burning fossil fuels. These are real lives saved and the numbers are big.

• Radiation is not as dangerous as most people think especially at low levels of exposure. While it is a carcinogen, it is a far less potent carcinogen that many others we see in our everyday lives from many forms of pollution. In fact we use radiation in medicine to save lives by both diagnosing illness and treating diseases such as cancer.

• Following really bad accidents such as Fukushima; where the entire area was devastated by a huge natural disaster that made it increasingly difficult to manage the nuclear accident at three reactors at the same site; we have still been able to protect people from radiation. The result being that to date not even one person has died from it; and studies show the risk of dying in the future to be too low to measure."

http://theenergycollective.com/mzconsulting/219221/learning-right-lessons-new-paradigm-build-brighter-future?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+%28all+posts%29

[immoderate]

1. Nuclear reactors are too dangerous.

We should move to renewable energy sources.

--imm

[Nihil]

2. That has some valid points but ...

... suffers from precisely the same utopian view as so many other plans (ironically,
even those diametrically opposed to the OP viewpoint) as it doesn't appear to allow
for the sheer wilful stupidity of humans - both the uber-capitalist who deliberately
chooses to imperil safety for the sake of short-term profit and the uber-antinuke
who refuses to understand the concepts of scale or relative risk.

As a result, the OP is interesting in an academic way but not particularly meaningful
when applied to the irrationality of the real world. Thanks for posting it though.