Saturday, April 23, 2011

Radiation

Someday, hopefully soon, I will move all these radiation posts off the trading blog.   For now I think this incredibly important.  

Here are some thoughts:


Nuclear people get drawn into the mystique and allure of turning matter into energy.  Indeed, destroying matter and turning it directly into energy.   Like playing God in a way.  

It is complex, big, important.   Those who make nuclear their career are tainted in their opinions.  Note how most of the old nuclear experts have long hair, like they think they are going to get some trim by have long hair (even gray) and being a nuclear scientist.  

The nuclear "organizations" that exist are fully "pro nuclear".   Please don't try to take their toys away from them, and their sex appeal, and ability to bank serious coin.   

Article below "Why is their irrational fear of radiation?"

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2011/04/21/why-is-there-irrational-fear-of-radiation/

Amazing to me.   Fear of radiation is totally rational.  The people in this article attempt to spin, that because the units of measurement are complex, that people are making a mole hill into a mountain.   Spin, highly intellectual spin.    

Charles Bell
I worked around radiation at nuclear power plants since the mid 1970s. After seeing the movie about the SL-1 accident on my first day of Navy Nuclear Power School, I quickly gained a respect and rational fear of radiation. Education, training, and experience are key to removing the irrational fear from ones mind and replacing it with the rational kind.

Personally, I think that if Fukushima does not "go critical" with open fission, preventing even the most basic treatment of the fuel pools, and then the fuel pools going critical.   IF this does not happen, that 1M to 5M will dies from the radiation already released, and numerable diseases that will not be easily attributable to Fukushima directly will also occur, say 25 Million.

If the 6 reactors and 2.5M pounds of uranium "go off", the after effects could leave no one on the planet untouched.  

Interesting that the Japanese have brought in the French as their nuclear consultants and media shirlls.   I think that the Japanese cannot ask for too much help from the US because in some weird way, that fact that the US dropped atom bombs on Japan makes it improper to get US help to solve their nuclear problems.   Of course, design of plant is by GE, the Mark 1.    Got it?  The first version?   The worst version.

In researching nuclear I too fall into the trap of "nuclear knowledge is cool".   It is very enticing.    But some things are just too strong for humans.     

1 comment:

  1. This is like the ending of a bunch of different creature features from the 1940s and 50s, where the surviving hero or the good scientist says, "There are some things man is not meant to know." A lot of those creatures came about from radiation, or so the plots said. It seems very odd that we still haven't learned a basic truth that was so obvious, it was in B movies 50-some years ago.

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