Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:24:22 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

"In the UK, where radon levels are lower than in many European
countries, radon in ordinary homes causes about 1,000 deaths each year,
which is about 1% of all cancer deaths."

Compare and contrast with the nuclear industry.

Which would be shut down immediately if it could be shown to cause even
10 deaths a year. Probably even ONE death a year.

Agreed, lets get a sense of perspective.

Deaths due to road "accidents" run about 10 per *day*.

I don't see people banning road based transport anytime soon.

The key is partly public perception, and partly 'need to have'

Cf the great mercury debate of CFL's, the ease with which CFC's were
banned (alternatives existed) and the difficulty in banning carbon fuels
(no sensible alternatives currently exist).

It didn't MATTER that peoples perception of nuclear power were grossly
distorted, and that the safety standards were orders of magnitude higher
than any other industry, as long as alternatives existed.


Now its increasingly clear that no cost effective scalable alternatives
really do exist, its a matter the needs urgent public education.