"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...
Dee D. Flint wrote:

Dee, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with you,
but very much disagreeing with your argument.

Uranium miners get ill with apalling regularity. This is part of the
overall cost of this method of energy production, unless you are force
fitting your argument to include only the power generation stage. There
are piles of radioactive tailings around some towns out west. Kids often
play on them.

http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/miners.html

http://www.downwinders.org/cortez.htm

These are just a couple examples.

Is that directly attributable? Gosh who knows? Cigarettes were "not
proven to be deadly until not all that many yars ago, while I have read
literature from the 1860's that documented all the effects that tobacco
smoking causes. My guess is that if a group of people involved in an
activity show statistically significant trends in illness, some activity
they have in common just may be responsible.

I don't suspect you will understand this, but part of your approach is
exactly why people distrust what they are told about NP.

It's exactly for these reasons that I keep saying that we have to do the
research and not let our emotions and fears sway us. And we do have to make
sure we don't do stupid things. Letting kids play on piles of tailings is
stupid. Even on non-radioactive piles, they can get hurt as the piles are
unstable and slide.

Right now, the fear and emotions are preventing us from doing the necessary
data gathering and research. Whether or not a person believes in nuclear
power, this data is sorely needed. If it's safe, we need to move forward.
If it's too dangerous, we need to follow other routes. That judgment should
be made on facts not feelings as people are doing today.

As far as cigarettes go, the term "coffin nails" goes a long way back. The
fact that people chose to hide their heads in the sand and not do the
research until relatively recently just goes to show the idiocy of not doing
the research.

Statistical correlations though must be treated carefully. It doesn't
necessarily prove a cause and effect relationship. It can be the case that
two (or more) independent items stem from the same cause. Once again,
adequate research is needed to determine why two items correlate. For this
reason, statistical trends should be used to trigger research not to draw
conclusions.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE