3 ms·
If you've read Normal Accidents by Perrow, how would you respond to someone who said that a good reason is because of the extreme complexity of nuclear power co
by prawks 14y ago
If you've read Normal Accidents by Perrow, how would you respond to someone who said that a good reason is because of the extreme complexity of nuclear power coupled with our relatively new understanding of it? I think that's a pretty good criticism of nuclear power.
- anigbrowl 14y agoI haven't read that book, but I get the point about the critique. I think it's important to acknowledge the many errors that have resulted from both ignorance and negligence, but also to consider how scientific rigor and engineering methodologies like redundancy and planning for failure mean that we don't have to fly blind; also, the more we postpone implementation of alternative designs (such as those for thorium reactors), the greater the risks from maintaining outdated reactors become. There are many reactors that I'd like to see shut down for either design or geographic reasons, and the best argument for decommissioning them is that we can produce the same amount of power at lower cost and risk.
- jlarocco 14y agoI would ask them if they feared computers, which are more complex, more recent, and used to control almost everything.
- baq 14y agowhen computers break down, they don't kill people for the next hundred years.