3 ms·

But as it turned out, this was just more fear than harm. These radiation turned out to have almost no health consequences in the population. (And 500kBq is not

But as it turned out, this was just more fear than harm. These radiation turned out to have almost no health consequences in the population. (And 500kBq is not much. The human body is already 5kBq naturally) > What if the next accident happens not in the Soviet Union or Japan, but in one of the power plants next door? That would be terrible. But how does it compare to other terrible events such as the flood of last year, arguably caused by global warming? You were victim of the fear propaganda of the 80's, but people today are victim of the energy crisis in Germany, which is partly caused by the choice to discontinue nuclear.

Jon_Lowtek 4y ago
> These radiation turned out to have almost no health consequences in the population. Thousands died of thyroid cancer but for the population that is easily described as "almost no consequences" due to scale. https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/pressrels/2018/unisous395.html https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/pressrels/2018/unisous395.... The death of a man is a catastrophe. A thousand deaths is a statistic!
- varajelle 4y ago
  Your source does not support what you claim. > About 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer cases were registered in the period 1991−2015 in males and females, who were under 18 in 1986 for the whole of Belarus and Ukraine, and for the four most contaminated oblasts of the Russian Federation. The Scientific Committee now estimates that one in four of those cases is attributable to radiation exposure. This is not about Germany, but about the area much closer to the power plant. Also thyroid cancer has a 98% survival rate according to Wikipedia. So that would amount to 20000 * 0.25 * 0.02 ≈ 100 death caused by the accident in the most impacted area. Which is a catastrophe, but also not an apocalypse But I was talking about Germany anyway where the most alarmist messages were delivered about the danger on the German population.
Archelaos 4y ago
> You were victim of the fear propaganda of the 80's, The threat was real. It is like saying that after someone put a knife at your throat, that it was nothing, because you are still alive. > but people today are victim of the energy crisis in Germany, which is partly caused by the choice to discontinue nuclear. It depends how you tell the story. It was the choice to discontinue nuclear, but pospone renewables. The companies in the coal and gas energy sector were mostly identical to those in the nuclear energy sector (3 out of 4 large companies). They did not have much of a problem getting out of nuclear energy if they could stay in the coal and gas business or even expand it and pass on the financial risk of their nuclear waste disposal obligations to the taxpayer[1] -- as long as they had not to fear too much competition from renewables. It were the very same people in industry and politics that supported nuclear whenever possible, that supported coal and gas as a replacement and constantly downplayed the impact of climate change. The people from the environmental movement who warned about all this were not politically strong enough to push through a better agenda. That is what has brought us to the current situation. Guess who I trust the most to find the best way out of this situation ... [1] They threatend bankruptcy if not, and got away with a one-time payment of only 24,1 billion Euro.

Jon_Lowtek 4y ago

> These radiation turned out to have almost no health consequences in the population. Thousands died of thyroid cancer but for the population that is easily described as "almost no consequences" due to scale. https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/pressrels/2018/unisous395.html https://unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/pressrels/2018/unisous395.... The death of a man is a catastrophe. A thousand deaths is a statistic!

varajelle 4y ago
Your source does not support what you claim. > About 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer cases were registered in the period 1991−2015 in males and females, who were under 18 in 1986 for the whole of Belarus and Ukraine, and for the four most contaminated oblasts of the Russian Federation. The Scientific Committee now estimates that one in four of those cases is attributable to radiation exposure. This is not about Germany, but about the area much closer to the power plant. Also thyroid cancer has a 98% survival rate according to Wikipedia. So that would amount to 20000 * 0.25 * 0.02 ≈ 100 death caused by the accident in the most impacted area. Which is a catastrophe, but also not an apocalypse But I was talking about Germany anyway where the most alarmist messages were delivered about the danger on the German population.

Archelaos 4y ago

> You were victim of the fear propaganda of the 80's, The threat was real. It is like saying that after someone put a knife at your throat, that it was nothing, because you are still alive. > but people today are victim of the energy crisis in Germany, which is partly caused by the choice to discontinue nuclear. It depends how you tell the story. It was the choice to discontinue nuclear, but pospone renewables. The companies in the coal and gas energy sector were mostly identical to those in the nuclear energy sector (3 out of 4 large companies). They did not have much of a problem getting out of nuclear energy if they could stay in the coal and gas business or even expand it and pass on the financial risk of their nuclear waste disposal obligations to the taxpayer[1] -- as long as they had not to fear too much competition from renewables. It were the very same people in industry and politics that supported nuclear whenever possible, that supported coal and gas as a replacement and constantly downplayed the impact of climate change. The people from the environmental movement who warned about all this were not politically strong enough to push through a better agenda. That is what has brought us to the current situation. Guess who I trust the most to find the best way out of this situation ... [1] They threatend bankruptcy if not, and got away with a one-time payment of only 24,1 billion Euro.