It’s an amazing irony that the only technology that could have any chance of cutting CO2 emissions from the generation of electricity 80% by 2050 is being ostracized by environmentalists.
One of their reasons for opposing nuclear power is fear of radiation, even tiny doses. Opponents of nuclear power chant remember “Chernobyl” and “Three Mile Island” whenever the subject comes up.
The Union of Concerned Scientists and National Resources Defense Council, among others, are ardently opposed to nuclear power, but simultaneously champion climate change and their belief that CO2 emissions must be cut in the United States 80% by 2050.
As shown in the series on CO2 Fool’s Errand these past few weeks, it’s virtually impossible to cut CO2 emissions 80% without nuclear power.
A rational understanding of radiation would help alleviate people’s fear of radiation that’s being exploited by the organizations opposed to nuclear power.
To this end, a new book Radiation and Reason, by Wade Allison, delves into why radiation should be respected, but not feared.
My article Radiation Fears addressed the issue, including the effects of Chernobyl.
The Linear No Threshold (LNT) hypothesis asserts that radiation is dangerous at any level, and this has been the guiding principle behind the public’s understanding of radiation for the past seventy years.
Professor Wade Allison is a Fellow of Keble College and Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and his new book examines why, based on today’s knowledge, LNT is wrong.
He asks, with birds nesting unaffected in the Chernobyl sarcophagus and animals running around unscathed in the area around Chernobyl, “is there something wrong with the accepted orthodox view of the dangers of radiation to life?”
He goes on to examine the LNT approach to radiation.
The book also describes in considerable clarity, some of the basic principles surrounding radiation, including an overview of the entire radiation spectrum from AM radio to gamma rays. He explains why nuclear power is inherently safe, and made even safer with the latest designs that can shut down without fear of overheating the core.
By providing this overview, Professor Wade establishes a scientific basis for his comments that the reader can follow.
A key message from this book, and from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is that people need to be told the truth about radiation.
The IAEA said: “The Chernobyl accident resulted in many people being traumatized by the rapid relocation, the breakdown in social contacts, fear and anxiety [about the unknown].”
The lack of communications and the lack of knowledge among the people about radiation created fear – nameless and unreasonable fear.
The Fukushima accident has reignited fear among people about radiation. When a tuna fish off the coast of California was found to have low levels of radiation, it was headlined by the media. Those opposing nuclear power have used Fukushima to exploit people’s fear about radiation.
Nature recently reported on studies by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) and by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the Fukushima accident. Both conclude that “few people will develop cancer as a consequence of being exposed [to the radiation at Fukushima].”
According to the Nature article, the psychological risk may be far greater than any radiation risk.
Eliminating the LNT view of radiation, and allowing people to realize that low doses are not harmful, could help restore people’s acceptance of nuclear power as being a safe, pollution free and economic method for generating electricity.
Read more of Donn’s columns at his blog Power For USA.
Photo credit: Paul J Everett (Creative Commons)
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Welcome to the Environmental GAME!
Yes, choose whatever you want and you’re WRONG!
If you look at it this way, it makes sense:
We have LOTS of OIL. We find more all the time. We also have LOTS of Natural Gas. Since the Owners of that are the Elite and they want to control the world under a New World Order, they have some Gomer such as Al Gore convince the lemmings that such things cause Global Warming through CO2, though they have it BACKWARDS whereas an increase in temperature creates an rise in CO2.
Then, as we saw, they PURPOSEFULLY mess with a nuke plant (Fukashima) so nobody wants to deal with that, leaving us with NO CHOICE but to return to primitive society (austerity).
To “cut to the chase”, the Elite PLAN to strangle the world in every way possible so people BEG to be “saved” by a New World Order whereupon they will ADMIT that Global Warming is a Fraud, tell that we have abundant oil, and make you so glad they SAVED YOU!
That way you’ll be a HAPPY SLAVE, though they will have taken away all your GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS!
CO2 is negated by plants. You know, the green things like trees. Blaming CO2 on burning fossil fuels is simply a means to disguise the real agenda, and that is nothing more than political, not actual.
The above article is more than disgusting. The author ought to be ashamed of himself for trying to cover up the real dangers of nuclear energy.
The author/shill refers to small elevations in the tuna recently found off of California. The radiation levels were FIVE TIMES higher than normal. Many readings across the country indicate similar spikes in radioactivity.
The amount of radiation released in the first 90 days by the Fuk nukes is 20 times higher than was released from Chernobyl! No number have been released since then!
Up to a million premature deaths were caused by Chernobyl according to a comprehensive analysis. This does not include the many deformed children who suffer those deformities due to Chernobyl. In the US in the first nine months since the Fuk nuke accident, there has been a 20,000 increase in still births in the US.
It has been reported that there is now a LIQUIFIED 5,000+ degree puddle of radioactive material in one of the buildings. This type of event has NEVER been seen before. We are in a whole new territory, folks. How do you seal something that is hotter than the melting point of anything else on the surface of the earth?
Rock melts at 1,700 degrees. Sooner or later that super hot radioactive mess will melt its way to the water table. At that point there will be a massive explosion similar to a natural gas explosion that could easily destroy or compromise the other buildings.
Fukushima isn’t done. It will be polluting, deforming and killing for many generations to come.
Let’s try a little common sense, shall we? Remember when the environmentalists were saying that radiation would last hundreds of thousands of years? If that were the case in truth, Hiroshima and Nagasaki would still be wasted deserts instead of thriving cities.
Your fear mongering mimics the lame stream media, and makes you look no more intelligent than a parrot.
Excellent point. I’m glad you pointed that out.
Just like 9/11 there are some theories that just do not pan out. WTC7 for instance did not collapse, it was taken down. Fukushima is the same. Several of the reactors did not even have fuel rods in them as they had been removed for maintainance. Like the supposedly collapsing twin towers, these building blew up for no reason. The towers were taken down after the planes hit as evidenced by scorched adjacent buildings and vehicles blocks away from ground zero. Collapsing buildings do not burn everything for an 1/8 mile in every direction unless they have a fuel source like in perhaps a bomb.
Mr. Birghtwinder states there are reports of a 5000+ degree pool in one of these buildings. Who reported it? How would they know? Who took it’s temperature?
3 mile island was a success if anything. It wasn’t a disaster. You had human error and mechanical error and you had containment. That’s what is was designed to do and it worked.
Red China now has over 30 nuclear power plants under construction.
I’m not sure if the USA has even one under construction so what does that tell you?
The media controls us just like what the movie “China Syndrome” tried to scare us into a frenzy and they did WITH Michael Douglas and Hanoi Jane Fonda leading the way.
Now i would agree that erecting Nuke power plants in earthquake zones and Tusnami prone areas is probably not a great idea but baning them altogether is even dumber.
Chernobyl was adangerous design from day one being it was graphite cooled.
A Ford model T and a Hummer are both vehicles but night and day as far as technology is concerned and the same can be said of Nuke power plants.
They are safer and more efficient and one of these days they will figure out what to do with the spent fuel rods and may even make the rods into something so useful we will wonder how we ever got along without them.
Well stated! Not to mention the fact that nuclear powered ships have been damaged, even sunk, but the reactors have never caused even a moderate amount of environmental concern except to the hyper-agitating fear mongers. Indeed, when a B-52 lost a nuclear weapon in the Atlantic Ocean, the weapon was recovered without any damage whatsoever to the environment. This tells a lot about why the fear mongers should be listened to with a whole bucket of salt water.
These environmentalists are a bunch of commie-controlled nut jobs. They lie about everything and use fear tactics to scare people. They say that we need to save the planet, but they think it’s OK to KILL the humans? They make no sense whatsoever. They have NO common sense. They have a double standard — HYPOCRITES they all are. See website: http://www.haasstrep68.com