Kelvin Kemm reports that the terrible toll from Japan tsunami came from the waves, not radiation. Over the last couple of decades physics advances in fields such as quantum mechanics, which is linked to nuclear processes has compounded matters for the public. The image of strong and mysterious forces and effects is now well entrenched. There are Hollywood movies and TV programs about space travelers or alien invaders who use time travel and quantum forces, and then battle to evade the dangerous intergalactic nuclear zones.
A consequence of all this is that internationally the public is now really spooked when it comes to the topic of nuclear power. A real fear factor looms over the mere word nuclear. Newspapers love this, and really push imagery like; nuclear leak or radiation exposure.
To a nuclear physicist like me, I look upon such public reaction half with amusement and half with dismay. The amusement comes from the fact that so many people can be scared so easily by so little. It is like shouting: Ghost in the bedroom, and everyone runs and hides in the hills.
The dismay reaction is that there is a body of anti-nuclear activists who do not want the public to know the truth, and the anti-nukes enjoy stoking the fear factor and maintaining public ignorance.
Let us now ponder the Fukushima nuclear incident which has been in the news again lately. Firstly let us get something clear. There was no Fukushima nuclear disaster. Total number of people killed by nuclear radiation at Fukushima was zero. Total injured by radiation was zero. Total private property damaged by radiation ...zero. There was no nuclear disaster. What there was, was a major media feeding frenzy fueled by the rather remote possibility that there may have been a major radiation leak.
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