this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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[–] beltsin@lemm.ee 158 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The level of ignorance around any nuclear related incident is astounding

[–] dan1101@lemm.ee 71 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the radiation levels are truly negligible then the media shares blame for getting people upset over it.

[–] chaogomu@kbin.social 77 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oil companies are ultimately to blame. After all, it was the Rockefeller Foundation who did the early radiation studies in the 50s, and then blatantly lied about the results to make radiation sound super scary. They claimed that there was no safe dose of radiation, and that any exposure, no matter how small, led to a direct, linear, increase in cancer risk.

And then the oil companies funded politicians who declared education to be the enemy, so now Americans don't know enough physics to know that every day, they are swimming in safe doses of ionizing radiation. That ocean water has millions of tons of natural uranium oxide dissolved in it.

US nuclear policy has been based off of these lies, it's part of why nuclear power is so expensive.

Those same oil companies actually paid to found Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to specifically advocate against nuclear power, by spreading fear and lies about how nuclear physics work.

The Rockefeller foundation still funds Greenpeace, and still requires that Greenpeace be anti-nuclear to receive that funding. All while being heavily invested in oil.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Truly. The evacuation order itself killed more people around Fukushima than radiation did.

[–] natryamar@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I want to know more about this do you have an article you recommend?

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] natryamar@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

It is. And it’s maddening that people just say the word Fukushima as evidence against the viability of nuclear power. Radiation is such a boogeyman to people. Not well understood. And I don’t even think people know that there was a tsunami that killed 2000 people. 1 death from radiation - a plant worker.

Sure, let’s discard a high capacity, carbon-neutral, baseline-capable form of energy over this.

People don’t even know that smokestacks on coal fired power plants spew radiation into the atmosphere. The fact that nuclear deposits it in barrels is actually a plus.

[–] roguetrick@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's reasonable to be concerned about the long term health effects of tritiated water. It's very unlikely this will have any effects though. It's only like a few grams. I bet fusion power would produce a whole lot more, even through the blanket. That could have considerable local health effects.

[–] cloud@lazysoci.al 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes, the ignorance is mainly caused by governments and lobbies keeping quiet about what actually happened and washing down data

[–] hotdaniel@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

More like, ignorance caused by my local news deciding to run a story telling people there is a controversy, without making a simple statement like the water is less radioactive than a banana. There's a controversy in part because the media encourages it, at almost every opportunity.

[–] roguetrick@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

Most folks, including nuclear advocates, have little understanding of either fission products or neutron activation. They really have no need to. I don't think the data isn't there if you look for it though. It's just not simple to understand.