James   Until you learn to factor in the glowing green frogs and the  
vampires, you just won't get it.  Nuclear Power is different than any  
other kind of science.  When dealing with NP, you must learn to throw  
out the scientific method and substitute "worst case is the truth"  
reasoning. No amount of safety procedures will work, people who are  
handed the responsibility to operate NP facilities rapidly go insane  
and pull levers at random, while singing a green frog song.  On top  
of all of that , NP has killed more people in that last 50 years than  
have died from all other causes during the entire history of  
mankind.  If you are alive right now to read this sentence, your  
chances of dying from out of control radiation clouds spewing from  
Yucca Mountain is  123%.  Trust me on this.
cc

>
> On Feb 28, 2008, at 2:33 PM, James Newton wrote:
>
> My point is that we currently have mountains (plural) and plains  
> and caves
> and back yards full (to a lesser concentration) of nuclear waste  
> (well, not
> waste, but still radioactive to some degree) which we aren't even  
> apparently
> aware of and we don't worry about that, so why do we worry about a  
> mountain
> that we DO know about?
>
> There are places where yellow cake sits around in national parks  
> and kids
> use it to draw on rocks. Xrays, high airplane flights, and bad  
> water cause
> more radiation damage than any nuke waste ever has. And coal power  
> causes
> more damage of all sorts (radiation, pollution, etc...) than anything
> nuclear does ever.
>
> So why do we get so upset about nuke plants and nuke waste? The  
> numbers
> don't account for the emotions.
>
> --
> James.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On  
> Behalf Of
> Carey Fisher
> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 05:49
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: Re: [OT] Just wondering..
>
> James Newton wrote:
>> Wouter, I don't understand the difference between naturally occurring
> veins
>> of radioactive ore being exposed by some natural or unnatural  
>> upheaval and
>> that same sort of exposure happening to spent fuel rods.
>>
>> Shit happens.
> The "Law of Unintended Consequences" is the problem here.  I think  
> it's
> likely that something we
> currently don't know will bite us in the butt.  And do we want a
> mountain full of nuclear
> waste to be the biter?
> Carey
> -- 
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