CC,
Public opposition to nukes arises from two facts that you may have over-looked:
1. operator errors might be like car accidents, or they might be catastrophic, both for the number of lives lost, but also for property damage that would not be covered by normal insurance. It is possible to have a dead zone of thousands of square miles.
2. Take the bloke who just turned out the lights in SCal. Little guy, pulled the wrong plug, was texting some babe......whatever. Point is, one guy did a hell of a lot of damage. Now, put the same simple error in a nuke plant. Most folks know you aren't going to do a quick fix, or rewind the cord without LASTING and permanent side effects. Our society requires advanced division of labor for productivity. Two implications:
a. the little guy in the maintenance dept can screw up and cost many thousands of others extreme pain, inconvenience, and possibly, death. We all know this and we don't, for good reason, trust the system. Refinery fires or explosions are bad enough....nuke accidents like Japan are mega-fold the problems, pain, and damage.
b. the folks who monitor safety and say "all is well," ARE NOT the folks who are likely to suffer from their lies or errors of judgment. Same for the corporate leaders. For better or worse, like the Exxon Valdez, or the last Gulf pollution accident, the folks who suffer the effects of mal-administration, ARE NOT the folks who make the decisions. Like the shrink who turns a [reformed :) ] psycho-killer loose back into the public ---- The shrink is unlikely to suffer from the consequences of HIS bad judgment. No, it will be the public. Do you trust the shrinks and the nuke bureaucrats?
Me? No way.
We all know you care for your life and property with a hell of a lot more conscientiousness than we would for the guy on the other side of town. Ya know that's true for investment counselors, just as it was true for Goldman and and the bad paper they sold to clients.
Finally.....under worse case outcomes, for the average bloke, when the stink hits the fan, what recourse do they personally have? ....We all know................'bout none. |
