Jeroen wrote:
> At 00:51 4-7-01 +0100, Andy Crystall wrote:
>
> >Now look at the cancer rates arround a COAL fired power station..
> >over EIGHT times, in some cases, the national average. And that's
> >before we consider the CO� and other pollutants it spews...
>
> Maybe that's true, maybe it isn't. I don't know -- I don't have the data.
>
> Your statement looks like that old tactic: tone down a problem by pointing
> at an other, bigger problem. But that's not gonna work -- not on this
list.
>
> The issue here is whether or not nuclear power plants are safe. Pointing
at
> conventional power plants and say "the cancer rates around those are MUCH
> higher than around nuclear plants" does not proof that nuclear power
plants
> are safe. It only points out that nuclear plants aren't the *only*
problem.
In relative terms (since there is no *absolute* safety), Nuclear plants ARE
safe. Safer than driving your car, safer than jumping out of airplanes,
safer than taking a swim, safer than living near a Union Carbide storage
facility and safer than shooting off fireworks.
As has been pointed out numerous times, cancer rates near nuclear power
plants *AS A WHOLE* are not *significantly* (and I'm using the term in the
sense of "Is there a repeatable and testable statistical difference in these
rates?") different from he cancer rates for the population as a whole. If
you have access to peer-reviewed data that suggests otherwise, please,
please, please provide it or at least give the name of the journal in which
it appeared.
I'm no right-wing shill for the nuclear power industry or industrial
polluters, and I think using anecdotes and bad studies to support the claims
of environmental harm does the environmental movement a huge disservice - it
allows those opposed to point and say, "See? They can't back up their
stories - let's ignore them!"
Dan and Bennzim have posted their objections to the cancer rate claims -
it's your move, and the standard has risen such that you've got to put up
some data or drop it.
As I've said before, I'd be willing to live in a 1 mile radius of any US or
Western European nuclear plant. Old Soviet plants, no thanks. The Soviet
ones should be decommissioned and dismantled.
Adam C. Lipscomb
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ICQ# 32384792
