Nuclear Technology: The Inappropriate Exercise of Human Intelligence

[Clara T]

Nuclear Technology:
The Inappropriate Exercise of Human Intelligence
-- and Given This, What Is Appropriate?
by dave ratcliffe

It is not a normal situation when the people who are in charge
of the fate of a whole civilization lie quite openly to the whole world.
--Dr. Vladimir Chernousenko,
     Physicist and Scientific Director of the Chernobyl "clean-up", 1986-91,
     testifying at the World Uranium Hearings in Salzburg, September, 1992.


PART I: Shattering Treacherous and Lethal Assumptions


We need now, as we have for more than fifty years, to articulate and then dispel and shatter the false and exceedingly lethal assumptions underlying the "promises" of nuclear technology. The hierarchies of centralized authority, which have the greatest vested interest in perpetuating the employment of this technology, have lied about its true costs from the very beginning. These hierarchies include the Fortune 500 <1> / Global 500 <2> corpses <3>, G7 governments, the World Bank <4> <5> <6> and International Monetary Fund, known by "grassroots" as players in The World Game. These players have a deep, abiding financial interest in and obsession with the promotion of nuclear weapons and energy. Collectively they have said and will continue to say and do anything to maintain the continuation of this technology with the falsehoods, uttered for decades regarding the "energy angle", about its being "safe", "clean", and "cheap". Such assumptions as, "There can be a peaceful promotion of atomic energy," and, "It has not been proven that exposure to low-level ionizing radiation causes cancer," are lethal to the extreme. Since the early 1940s such deceitful suppositions have sustained the nuclear nightmare that has seized upon and threatens all life, and all of its future, here on Earth.

This essay articulates some of the fundamentally treacherous assumptions underlying claims used by nuclear industrial interests, to justify further development and the ongoing employment of this technology in our society and on our ineffably precious and irreplaceable planetary home. It concludes with a partial listing of what our response abilities provide us with in the exercise of our true intelligence. Let us begin with the most essential and obfuscated fact to understand about nuclear weapons -- which was known by the original bomb creators back at the very beginning of this new epoch.

The Utterly Inappropriate Exercise of Human Intelligence

What has carefully been obscured since the "dawn of the atomic age", when men in the Manhattan Project such as Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller were attempting to build an atomic bomb, is acknowledgement of the fact that the nuclear bomb is primarily a biological weapon. This is chronicled by Richard Rhodes in his book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb when he relates how, in April of 1943, Enrico Fermi


proposed . . . to Robert Oppenheimer . . . that radioactive fission products bred in a chain-reacting pile might be used to poison the German food supply. . . .
          Oppenheimer . . . discussed Fermi's idea with Edward Teller. The isotope the men identified that "appears to offer the highest promise" was strontium, probably strontium 90, which the human body takes up in place of calcium and deposits dangerously and irretrievably in bone. Teller thought that separating the strontium from other pile products "is not a very major problem."<7>

http://www.ratical.org/radiation/NTechIEHI.html

[Channel Locks]

1. Something like Chernobyl

Would never happen in the US. Ever. All nuclear power plants in the US require an emergency water coolant that must be gravity fed to prevent meltdwon, though that type of scenario is highly unlikely to begin with. The safeguards, regulations, training and certification needed for operators and red tape in general are ridiculous. The only true problem we face is to open sites for proper disposal of nuclear waste.

[Throckmorton]

3. Sorry Channel locks

No gravity feed, Pumps galore, HPSI, LPSI, Aux feedwater, all pumps.

[Throckmorton]

4. Sorry, just not true

No gravity feeds, Pumps galore, HPSI, LPSI, Aux feedwater, all pumps. Oh, and the SITs, but they are a one shot wonder, and still rely on N2 pressure.

The primary reason Chernobyl type accidents are less likely to occur are the Containment Buildings that surround the vessel.

But, things can still go pretty haywire, even with containments.

[Channel Locks]

5. Actually

The primary reason Chernobyl accidents won't happen is competent engineers running the plant and vigilant watchstanding on their part.

[Odin2005]

2. What a bunch of nucleophobe propaganda.

Anti-nuclear is pro-coal as far as I'm concerned.

[depakid]

6. Or pro-blackouts

Personally, I prefer having the lights on as fossil fuels start to grow increasingly scarse and expensive....

[Channel Locks]

7. Alberta, Canada

Has got a ton of fuel waiting to be extracted in Ft. McMurray, we just need to find cheaper ways to refine it