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Showing posts with label nuclear accidents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuclear accidents. Show all posts

Monday, 21 March 2011

Radiation is good for you!

Radiation is good for you, as they used to say in the 1930s, when it was all seen as very glamorous. I could boil down the message of nuclear apologists for every year of the last 50 years or so to the following -

“Nuclear energy is completely safe - we have eliminated the possibility of accidents and you can  trust us. Last year's accidents, leaks, dangerous incidents, etc. (which we lied about systematically while they were occurring, then reluctantly admitted when an external investigating body found them) were regrettable, and we regret even more the long term cancers that will occur in the decades to come, but we have learned lessons and they will never occur again. New procedures and technological advances mean that everything will be OK from now on in.

And perhaps damage to the environment, health hazards that span decades and appalling risks that could devastate the planet - well, perhaps they are the price we must pay for clean -yes, clean - energy. I am a nuclear scientist, and I make my money from the nuclear industry, which is intimately linked to weapons of mass destruction and the military industrial complex - you can trust me ...”