Interesting talk here. Pheil mentions that there is a place in Iran that has radiation exposures far greater than that here in the US, but their cancer rates are lower. The Linear No Threshold Hypothesis suggests that the cancer rate will increase in proportion to the rate of exposure, but this is not the case in this example. In fact, the LTT is almost always wrong, and the people who push it know that it is wrong. ( I suspect so. ) In other words, the anti nuke activists are LYING. But you'd never get people to believe this because to believe it would be so frightening ( but for other reasons ). Well, they should be afraid ( also for other reasons). Their future prospects are being limited and their future is being stunted in order to gratify the whims of a few zealots. If we don't get a handle on this, this country is in danger of becoming truly second rate. For the zealots, this isn't a bug, it is a feature.
Update:
I hope to clarify what may not have been clear above--- people trust those who are lying to them. That trust is misplaced for if these anti-nuke zealots are scientists, then they must know what hormesis is. That makes the LTT a fraud, which is a fraud intended to scare people away from nuclear energy; an event that we simply cannot afford to let happen.
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