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The Proper Perspective On Radiation

By Eric McErlain
From The Nuclear Energy Option by Bernard Cohen:
If nuclear power was used to the fullest practical extent in the United States, we would need about 300 power plants of the type now in use. The waste produced each year would then be enough to kill (300 x 50 million =) over 10 billion people. I have authored over 250 scientific papers over the past 35 years presenting tens of thousands of pieces of data, but that "over 10 billion" number is the one most frequently quoted.

Rarely quoted, however, are the other numbers given along with it: we produce enough chlorine gas each year to kill 400 trillion people, enough phosgene to kill 20 trillion, enough ammonia and hydrogen cyanide to kill 6 trillion with each, enough barium to kill 100 billion, and enough arsenic trioxide to kill 10 billion. All of these numbers are calculated, as for the radioactive waste, on the assumption that all of it gets into people. I hope these comparisons dissolve the fear that, in generating nuclear electricity, we are producing unprecedented quantities of toxic materials.
Thanks to The Sublime Will for the link.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
Fear and loathing die hard! I have just heard from someone in USA: "We had to build an advanced steam generating coal fired facility outside our fenced nuclear facility because of the amount of radioactivity it produced." Echoes of the old days when coal fired plants often put out far more radioactivity (in fly ash) than nuclear plants. We need to keep radiation in perspective and not pretend that it's unnatural, or harmful at levels found in nature.
October 7, 2005 at 1:28 PM
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