2018 October 06 « nuclear-news

Nuclear Power and PUBLIC OPINION – theme for October 2018

You will note that this opinion poll graph is from 2011. Out of date? Yes.

The nuclear lobby is not keen on public opinion polling. And for good reason. This is the most recent global polling, coming up with 62% of people worldwide. opposed to nuclear power.

BUT, if you search for graphs on public opinion and nuclear power – you will find many recent ones that appear to show that the nuclear industry is now popular.

The global nuclear lobby has been very careful, since 2011 to conduct polls with “loaded” wording – hence those many “favourable” graphs to be found on the internet.

Opinion polls depend on the wording, as well as on the sample size and constituency of the respondents. There are polls that focus on nuclear weapons as being distinct from “peaceful” nuclear power, polls that suggest that nuclear is essential for medicine. for climate change action, and so on.

Yes, there are communities that support nuclear power. That includes many communities where many depend on the industry for their livelihood.

The nuclear industry is in top gear, trying to win the hearts and minds of people. But, it’s not succeeding. Sadly, it is winning (through expensive lobbying and funding) the hearts and minds of politicians – and of course, all those whose career depends on nuclear power.

Of course, even this poll was not totally accurate, in every detail. There are gaps – what do the people think, in totalitarian China, or Russia?

But, it must be a worry to the nuclear industry, that so many scientists, from so many disciplines – medical, climate, environmental, radiological, now oppose nuclear power. Not to mention the economists, who point out the costs of the total nuclear fuel chain.

In the coming months, the nuclear lobby will go all out to change public opinion. Their biggest push will be to downplay the health effects of ionising radiation, and to portray Fukushima nuclear meltdown as now solved – a healthy place to stage the 2020 Olympics.

The nuclear lobby will even push the idea that nuclear radiation is beneficial – even is a prevention and a treatment for various illnesses.

But it will be an uphill fight, for the global trend is now to distrust the nuclear industry, and for good reason.

Tritium was identified as the primary culprit in damaging fetuses and mothers’ rapidly diving cells.

Paul Richards Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia, 6 Oct 18,
This information was tabled in December 2007; as these were the findings of the German KiKK Study,
‘‘Epidemiologische Studie zu Kinderkrebs in der Umgebung von Kernkraftwerken’’ ‘‘Epidemiological Study of Childhood Cancer in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Stations”^ and then subsequently was made public this decade.

To date, no studies with NRC oversight have attempted to replicate the same methodology used in the 2007 KiKK Study.

Nonetheless, there have been plenty of opinion pieces in response to the study, pontificating why these results exist, how they are wrong, or even claiming the results are inconclusive. Which interestingly, are written by those affiliated with vested interest groups in the nuclear industry.

Where just claiming multiple epidemiology studies prior to this demonstrate contrary data. Unfortunately, this carries little, if any scientific weight.

Furthermore, the effect measured, quantified and subsequently published in Germany has never been discredited by peer review on the basis of replicating the study methods anywhere.

The outcome is the German KiKK Study^ stands alone unchallenged as a new benchmark verifying rapidly dividing cells in the womb and in mothers are actually affected detrimentally by tritium created in nuclear reactors. Creating leukaemia and birth defects in unborn babies.

Which in turn, is one of the central reasons for the phase-out of nuclear reactors in Germany, as most readers here are well aware many other nations have taken the lead on.
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^ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ijc.23330

German : http://www.kinderkrebsregister.de/…/pID8_20110808_DE.pdf

https://www.bfs.de/…/ergebnisse/kikk/kikk-studie.html https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/