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To: ransomnote
Western countries have been generating commercial-scale electricity from nuclear sources for going on 40 years now. That's two generations of humankind. More than enough for any latent effects to show. So, tell me the name of one person in this or any other country using LWR technology who has shown latent effects that are demonstrably causally linked to nuclear energy use among the general populace. You are the one posting these fearmongering threads. It is incumbent on you to present credible evidence in the form of just a simple naming of one person who has been harmed by radiation effects from LWR reactor accidents or operations. Surely in 40 year's time you could come up with just one name, acute or latent effects, whichever you like.

Bringing up the SL-1 event is really reaching for them. First, that was a military reactor, not a commercial design. No one designs reactors that have such a high individual control rod worth, much less one that can be manually moved. Show me one commercial design that has that feature.

There is no comparison between Chornobil and Fukushima. Chornobil was one core. There were three damaged at Fukushima and the total release is in the range of a few percent of the Chornobil release.

You're reaching far back into the past for any credible work by Gofman. His latest "work" and "pronouncements" have been completely discredited. He's just one more sad case of a one-time credible researcher going over to the fearmongering side.

30 posted on 02/11/2012 2:48:16 PM PST by chimera
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To: chimera

On an flight with a nuke engineer, Gofman did some back of the envelope calculations. He knew from all his years in the lab (as a physicist) that human limitations contribute to the release of samples no matter how careful they were. As he sat contemplating how toxic plutonium was, based on his research, he then did some calculations to see how much radioactive material nuclear plants would be expected to release based on known laboratory experience. He was horrified - the toll on human health was shocking and unacceptable. So he then calculated the maximum percentage a power plant could release without damaging the human population - this value was quite low. Concerned about his research and the impact radiation could have on humans, he turned the the nuke engineer next to him and asked him how much containment engineering limitations would allow him to build into a plant (how tight could they build a plant). The engineer breezily said that plants could be built to whatever specification John gave them ‘you give us the specification, we build it’. And John smiled and basically said “I’ve been working in labs for many many years and I can tell you that there’s a limit, it’s impossible to guarantee ANY specification given.’ As the nuke engineer reiterated that they’d build whatever was specified, John, a highly accomplished nuclear physicist and medical physician, was horrified to recognize the degree of hubris the man displayed. THIS was the turning point. John was dismayed that his research revealed that radiation was far more damaging to human health than anyone had previously realized. He started to share his work and they tried to destroy him and others in his lab for it. John and his peers plotted how to get their research to the public - they shouldn’t have to of course but that was the birth of the nuke industry: suppression, lies, intimidation. THIS is when the nuclear people stopped praising his work (He had previously done Oppenheim a great service by refining fuel samples faster than previously possible) and started to sneer that he was a nut. That’s all it takes to alienate the nuke industry - the truth.

I already posted upthread research demonstrating the death toll resulting from Chernobyl and the the state of the art BEIR VI that even small amounts of radiation increase the risk of developing cancer. Did you know cancer can kill? I have already explained what you know - that on a NAME ONE PERSON basis, the nuke industry hopes we’ll forget the plain, obvious, undeniable fact that radiation causes cancer and that cancer causes fatalities. The comprehensive report that I linked to: It tracked jumps in cancer and leukemia in Belarus and across the globe along with jumps in birth defects and still births. Do I know the names of still born babies in the US that can be tagged to a nuke plant? Uh no - that’s not how research works. A research sample has to be large (tens of thousands) and the names are not published. But you know that. That’s why you keep ignoring documented research and asking for ONE NAME. Time for your next dose.


31 posted on 02/11/2012 3:30:33 PM PST by ransomnote
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