[ExI] Two Japanese reactors on red alert

[Richard Loosemore]

Samantha Atkins wrote:
> On 03/15/2011 07:51 AM, Richard Loosemore wrote:
>> Eugen Leitl wrote:
>>> On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 09:56:59AM -0400, Richard Loosemore wrote:
>>>> On paper, great.
>>>>
>>>> On the ground, as thin as paper.
>>>
>>> You sound surprised.
>>
>> I sound ... frustrated, and let down.
>>
>> These things are not (it turns out) about physics and engineering, 
>> they are about organizational psychology, and politics.
>>
>> Too often, those who focus on the benefits of nuclear power want to 
>> talk about all the nice, easy-to-compute aspects of the situation 
>> (i.e. the physics).  The psychology and the politics, not so much.
> 
> The bottom line actual facts on the ground is that to date, over decades 
> of use, even with far less than state of the art systems, that energy 
> produced by nuclear power is safer and has harmed or killed far less 
> people than anything other source used at the same scale.   That isn't 
> theory or bias but the actual historical fact of the matter.

Actually it's the facts as determined by statistical naifs -- turkeys on 
Christmas eve who look back at the statistical likelihood that anything 
bad will happen, given how swimmingly things have been going so far....



Richard