nuclear-news

TODAY. “People of a generally nervous disposition” worry about mishaps with nuclear bombs.

I just couldn’t resist that little quotation from an article today about an undetonated nuclear bomb lying at the bottom of a river. To be fair, I think that the writer might have been being sarcastic. He also mentions that “bomb-enthusiasts” worry, too.

Nevertheless, his statement is symptomatic of the comfortable attitude of the authorities to the whole subject of nuclear weapons – in this system, quaintly called deterrence. We’re all a bit worried that someone, like Putin, for example, might actually use one, some day.

But, in the “normal” course of events, nuclear weapons provide good, reliable jobs, and all sorts of government benefits to the community, and something to be proud of- “my strong country” etc. Don’t they?

So, it’s a bit annoying, when someone kicks up a fuss about the nuclear weapons that get accidentally dropped, and lost. They have all sorts of safety features, so they can’t easily explode. well, the land-based ones are supposed not to, anyway. The Atomic Archive lists for the USA 32 “Broken Arrow” nuclear accidents. Of course, that’s only the American ones. What about the others – French, British, Russian, North Korean, Chinese nuclear weapons? Russia was known to have 45.000 nuclear weapons up to 1986 – most of them on submarines – how many got lost undersea? Can they explode, undersea?

But that’s the thing. We are comforted by the reassurance from the experts, that explosion of a lost nuclear weapon is extremely unlikely. We are safe.

What they don’t talk about – is corrosion, leakage of radioactive materials. Over time, increased radioactivity in water and land will affect millions of people, – but don’t worry – of all those millions, only a few million will get cancer from this. So you see, a few million cancer deaths is nothing much really, to worry about. Or so the experts would have us think.

The nuclear lobby has achieved a wonderful global brainwashing. The only thing to worry about is a dramatic event, – an explosion with high levels of radiation released.

If you worry about those less dramatic millions of cancers, well, you must be “a person of a generally nervous disposition”. Hell – it’s your fault – you need psychiatric care, you poor thing.

August 2, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes