Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

Fear of nuclear is a big problem. But we are causing far more damage to life on this planet by not using it. We need more than fossil fuels and wind turbines to power our populations and the digitally driven brave new world.

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

You are perfectly correct, Annie. I agree. Nuclear power is the future and, hopefully, nuclear fusion will eventually follow. That would be the ideal and the fuel source almost inexhaustible.

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

It's not waste in the case of Chernobyl, it's highly radioactive fuel that is still in critical mass under the shelter and masses of decaying contaminated material in the surrounding area. The "person of colour in the fuel store" is the mass of corium under reactor #4. Seldom if ever mentioned.

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

I don't worry about about anything Annie. Except perhaps why I ran five minutes slower this morning than I did on Thursday.....

With all due respect to the people who have lost a loved one to Covid, I don't think the virus is all that serious. When you consider how many people have been reported to be infected (and I believe you can double or even triple that number) compared to the number of deaths. Many people who have tested positive didn't even know they had the virus, and didn't go on to experience any symptoms.

I also reckon that I've probably got a 90% chance of surviving if I did catch it, but I was a smoker so I like living on the edge and taking a risk.
I doubt that I will catch it though, because I spend most of my life avoiding people and visiting the wild places. So I believe that I'm in control of my destiny...

However, once the genie has escaped from the jar, nobody is in control, and the actions of others can have a direct effect on my health and destiny. Covid is just a bump in the road compared to the amount of people killed by radiation. If you take away the amount of people killed in the immediate blast zone of an atomic bomb as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you will find that there are still people dying today from the fallout. And those that didn't die a horrible death of cancer, their offspring are born mutated or disabled.

You can wrap it up anyway you want Annie, but the high incidence of cancer started around the same time as we unleashed radiation and atomic power on the world. Coincidence? Maybe, but I doubt it...

How about this for starters.....And we moan about a miniscule amount of Methane and CO2 polluting the atmosphere (natural elements by the way) If it takes hundreds of years to neutralise contaminated ground, has the fallout from all those tests dissipated already? The 'Save the World' crackpots ask me "Don't I care about the world I'm leaving to my children?" Of course I do, but the people with all the influence and power don't, and unfortunately the future belongs to them!

Number of tests
Since 1945, more than 2,000 nuclear explosive tests have been carried out around the world. The United States has detonated the most explosions—1,127—including the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Soviet Union is second with 726 tests.22 Sep 2017

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

But OGF you can't compare an atomic bomb to a nuclear reactor. We are surrounded with natural radiation. If you live in Cornwall you should be walking around like that old Ready Brek advert. Transporting a truck of bananas will set a geiger counter off. Brazil nuts are delicious but also radioactive.

Higher incidences of cancer started around the time we worked out how to counter diseases that used to kill us early in life. Although you hear of young people contracting cancer it's predominantly a disease of old age. We have also increased processed foods, reduced exercise, increased alcohol consumption (and for a long time cigarettes), and exposed ourselves to carcinogens that we didn't realise were harmful (pesticides etc). I read somewhere that scented candles could give you cancer. Did anyone have these back in the 1920s? We know that sunlight gives us cancer, but radiation is after all used to treat cancer too.

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

A major source of naturally occuring radioactivity and one that really is hazardous is radon gas. It is mostly prevalent where igneous and intrusive rocks (think quartz, granite) are close to the surface such as Cornwall etc. and where naturally occuring uranium (more common than you might think) is degrading into isotopes of lead.

Every atom that degrades also releases an alpha particle and a gamma ray and radon gas, radioactive in its own right. To cut to the chase radon gas is a definite but not exclusive cause of lung cancer.

Gotta granite countertop? Best not sit on it or you might maybe find you've developed atomic piles!

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

And don't even think about making regular airline flights across the Atlantic!

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

I thought CT scans were the real killer. Not sure how much scientific references there are in this article but it hits home the message :

https://www.newscientist.com/article...omb-exposure-/

Re: A REAL Reason to Avoid a Smart Meter

It should be mentioned that that article was an American one.

I'd like to assure people that radiation protection measures in the UK are as careful as anywhere in the world.

I'd add that I'd be very careful about having such examinations in America not only in respect of the radiation protection measures applied, but also of the cost!

Finally, have another look at those percentage figures in that article. I think that demonstrates just how little risk there is in reality when you consider the value of medical imaging, including that involving ionising radiation.