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Re: [Phys-l] The West Wing



Yes, there is certainly a lot of misinformation and irrational fear. The
public is also kept in the dark. At the height of nuclear testing someone
in the lab went out with a Geiger counter and found that the bottoms of some
ditches were radioactive enough that someone who slept in them regularly
would get more than the maximum permissible dose for the general public.
Then there was one grad student who had his non physicist roommate convinced
that there were 10 lb tomatoes growing in behind the accelerator lab!

Oh yes, and at one time it was legal to bury sources to dispose of them.
This poses a problem when one wishes to construct a new building over a lab
which has some buried sources with inaccurate maps of the burial sites.

Unfortunately the public does not realize that the greater dangers might be
right under their noses. I think the problem is much more than just
scientific accuracy. Since 70% of the public is below the formal
operational level, it is difficult for them to truly understand the issues.
Statistical reasoning is one of the most difficult Piagetian tasks. Now if
the schools actively used cognitive enhancement techniques along with
correct information, then we might get somewhere.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


I don't know about industry, but my experience at the U is they've gone
overboard the other direction; mainly, as I discovered, because of the
IRRATIONAL public fear. I think a bit of scientific accuracy would
result in a lessened evil belief.

bc, who attempts to add a bit a of rationality when he demos and mentors
high school radiation experiments.

p.s. Anyone see the China Syndrome, which fortuitously(?) was released
w/ 3 mi. island?

p.p.s. I couldn't believe it; EH&S managed to talk the advanced lab.
out of their 2 Ci Pu-Be neutron source!!!!!

John Clement wrote:

I don't think it just a liberal bias against nuclear power. The general
public is quit afraid of radiation. I also have a friend who worked for
a
short time at a nuclear power plant as a radiation physicist, and he
witnessed outrageous disregard for safety, including an elevator located
where there was a radiation leak. He came away from the experience
fairly
anti-nuclear power because he thought that power companies were incapable
of
maintaining a high standard for safety. To my knowledge he still works
as a
physicist at Los Alamos. This was in the early 70s. Has industry
acquired
a higher regard for safety since then?

John M. Clement
Houston, TX





"The message which was
delivered is the PC liberal dogma that anything nuclear (or should I
say "nuculer"?) is evil, and scientific accuracy could be justifiably
sacrificed given the unquestionable nobility of that message."





_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l




_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l