A few weeks back, we asked our readers to participate in an LA Times poll on the continued operation of the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Earlier today, the San Diego Union-Tribune posted their own poll on the ultimate fate of the facility:
Friday, June 29, 2012
Another Call for Nuclear Advocates
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4 comments:
How about starting a game like "How To Tell If A Fair And Accurate Reporter Is Secretly Anti-Nuclear?"
Like --
A. If he/she keeps saying that a reactor is "spewing" out radioactivity.
B. Fukushima is a "nuclear accident" instead of a "tsunami accident" (since people are killed in disasters).
C. Keeps showing crying little kids being swept by Geiger counters.
D. Gives a pro-nuker a five second bite in a three minute nuclear report.
E. Has deep ominous music playing in the background while showing clips of nuke plants under dark cloudy skies.
F. Keeps filming huge looming cooling towers like they ARE the reactors.
Etc...
James Greenidge
Queens NY
Pardon my error!
Correction for "B" is:
B. Fukushima is a "nuclear disaster" instead of a "tsunami disaster" (since people are killed in disasters).
James Greenidge
Queens NY
I have a few problems with such polls:
* First, such polls are definitely not scientific, and so are likely to be innaccurate - as an example, you have NEI calling on members to vote, and no doubt you probably have anti-nuclear organizations call upon their supporters to vote, and so the results could just reflect what organizations noticed the poll, and which are best organized to get member response quickly to such things.
* Even if you had a formal, official "voted" during an election, the question of whether to shutdown an individual nuclear plant should not be up for majority opinion. The majority can vote on overall policy - I suppose if a majority of Americans wanted to shutdown all nuclear power plants, that would be a legitimate exercise of democracy, but when it comes to individual plants, it should be owners, and regulators (e.g. NRC) who decide on technical and legal grounds whether the plant qualifies to be licensed and operate, not MOB RULE.
Fortunately, the United States is not a democracy. The Founders knew better than to base our government on such a historically unstable system. We should count our blessings that we live in a Constitutional Republic. Ochlocracies generally end badly for everyone.
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