More On Nuclear

2003-9-28 06:07:00

Paula writes:
Regarding Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass' research into the effects of inhaling low levels of radioactive contamination on unborn children and infants JJ wrote:

His faulty reasoning goes like this.

If it takes a thousand units of radiation to kill someone and ten thousand units are released then ten people must have been killed somewhere.

That is actually a very inaccurate summary of what Dr. Sternglass published. His book, with an introduction written by Dr. George Wald, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine, and Professor of Biology at Harvard, is available online at http://www.ratical.org/radiation/SecretFallout/.


JJ:
You said that Sternglass proved that the Three Mile Island accident produced 430 infant deaths. I can find no evidence of this in the website you mentioned. If you can find his evidence on this matter, I would like to see it.

Dr. Bernard Cohen, perhaps the most respected nuclear physicist in the country wrote: "The Media Institute, a Washington-based organization, published an extensive study of TV network evening news broadcasts during the 1970's By far the most often quoted source of information was the antinuclear activist organization Union of Concerned Scientists whose estimated 2 membership includes only about 0. 1% of all scientists. The most widely quoted "nuclear expert" was Ralph Nader. During the month following the Three Mile Island accident, the only scientist quoted was Ernest Sternglass, almost universally regarded in the scientific community (including antinuclear scientists) as one of the least reliable of all scientists in the field of radiation health (cf. below). From May 1978 through April 1979, there were no pro-nuclear "outside experts" among the ten top quoted sources. The only pro-nuclear sources in the top ten were from the nuclear industry, who clearly had low public credibility, especially during that period."

Paula:
Dr. Sternglass was not writing about the outside beta and gamma radiation exposure on pregnant mothers and infants, but on the inhalation of radioactive contamination that leaked from the primary coolant system when the system was vented at TMI. No one on Earth inhales radioactive gasses from space, though most of us do inhale low levels of radon that comes from the ground. On a commercial aircraft you will certainly never be exposed to the radioactive isotopes that escaped from the coolant system at TMI, though you do receive radiation exposure. Exposure and contamination are two very different things however, and at TMI radioactive contamination, like fallout after a bomb, was released into the atmosphere.

JJ:
From what I have read these gasses produced no negative health effects and the amount anyone breathed was miniscule. Read Keith's excellent article on this occurrence.

Paula:
JJ also wrote: Some studies also indicate that low level radiation may be beneficial to our health.

Go tell that to the children in Utah that experienced 2.5 times the normal rate of Leukemia, and increases in thyroid cancer during the times that nuclear bomb testing was happening in Nevada. These studies were released about two weeks prior to the accident at TMI.

JJ:
Now you're talking about a different subject which concerns nuclear bombs. There was some unacceptable radiation released from the Nevada Tests. This was not low level radiation. Ironically I was living in northern Gem County, Idaho at the time and we received about the worst dosages in the nation. Maybe that explains why I am a little strange.

This type of testing has been banned for many years and is not currently a threat.

On the other hand, you receive more radiation from your watch with a luminous dial than you do living next to a nuclear power plant.

Paula:
No one is saying that low-level radiation from TMI resulted in any deaths in the adult population. Adults are very resilient to low levels of radiation exposure. The concern is in the inhalation of these gasses by pregnant women and infants... A few days after the initial accident at TMI Governor Thornburgh had ordered the immediate evacuation of all pregnant women and children below school age from the area around Three Mile Island.

JJ:
Keith's article backs up my claim that there is no evidence of infant deaths from Three Mile Island.

The greatest catastrophe from this event is it shut down the production of all new nuclear power plants.

Paula:
Being the theoreticist that I am, like Paul, I am very interested in zero point energy :)

JJ:
That would be great if we actually had zero point energy available. We have to plow with the horses we have and current nuclear power technology that can supply us with safe, pollution free abundant and cheap energy.

Because of the tremendous number of lawsuits by environmentalists, nuclear energy, if we were to build new plants, would cost up to seven times as much as it would otherwise. It should be the cheapest cleanest source available, but alas certain aspects of the New Age has been set back as much as 50 years because of these modern Luddites who fight progress.


The sign said "eight items or less". So I changed my name to Les.
Steven Wright