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On Tuesday 29 May 2007 00:05, Ben Goodger wrote: > On 5/28/07, Simon Williams <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Mark (who was campaigning against nuclear power in the 1970's) > > On what grounds? Give me one example of a nuclear accident that could > possibly happen again, today, in the absence of extreme incompetence and > horrifying deregulation *cough*soviet_ukraine*cough*. Think profit motive - seems to be more virulent than any other creedo at the moment! However its not accidents that we have to worry about. I studied nuclear engineering at college and - while I'd rather not go into details - discovered that there is a flaw in the design of nuclear power stations that leaves them extremely vulnerable to what we now call terrorist attack. This flaw can be fixed but the cost would make them even more uneconomic. If that flaw was exploited at sizewell b when the wind was from the northeast then London would be written off. Its unlikely that terrorist would work out how to exploit this flaw but the consequences are so great is it worth the risk? > > Though in all honesty I do not believe for one second that the carbon we > > > produce makes the slightest bit of difference to our climate- one > > volcanic eruption produces hundreds of millions of times more carbon > > than we ever will. The sun dictates our climate more than anything else. Have you heard that Exon have been funding climate change studies? Think M$ 'get the facts' and apply that to climate change and be afraid, very afraid! You have to be very carefull who you listen to these days. Big business cares about profits and not people. Much of the possible dangers of climate change have been toned down for fear of the cry wolf syndrome. Back to nuclear power: Most people who have studied it and work in the industry have bought the idea that it can offer a clean and safe power source. If they allow themselves to consider the real dangers they tend to view them through rose tinted glasses and hope that someone will find a solution to these problems but carry on regardless. And one professor spotting these flaws has all the clout of wet flannel in parliament and will also have signed the official secrets act and his or her career will be doomed if they speak out in detail. The real villains are the companies that want to build these things. They are very expensive and are the ideal cash cow - "we need more money to make them safe", "Theres 2000 tons of highly radioactive material in the core - we need lots of money to look after it and keep it safe." And worst of all they can buy parliament with a weeks profit. Tom te tom te tom -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html