I get mail:
German physicist Peter Heller wrote a passionate plea for a return to science on the nuclear power issue, published in German here: http://www.science-skeptical.de/blog/fukushima/004149/
With Dr. Heller’s permission, I’ve translated it in English. But having gone over the content, I think his plea is worthy of a much wider audience – more than what NTZ can offer. So I send this to you with the kind request that you consider publishing it at WUWT.
Best regards,
P Gosselin
——————————————–
German physicist Peter Heller makes a passionate plea for a return to science on the nuclear energy issue. He wonders if ignorance and fear will cause us to abandon the legacies of Einstein, Heisenberg and others.
Fukushima
By Dr Peter Heller, http://www.science-skeptical.de
Astronomer, Physicist
There’s no place on earth I would rather be right now than at Fukushima – right in the atomic power plant, at the centre of the event. I say this because I am a physicist and there is no other place that could be more exciting and interesting for a physicist. The same goes for many, if not most physicists and engineers, on the planet.
Already at a young age I knew one day I would study physics. As a boy, I received a telescope for Christmas, and from that point on my view was fixed on the night sky; gazing at star clusters, nebula and galaxies was my favourite preoccupation. It was only later that I learned that these lights and the twinkling in eyepiece were actually the expressions of a chaotic and violent force of nature – the direct conversion of matter into energy during the fusion of an atomic nucleus.
My curiosity carried me, as if on a high, through 10 semesters of study and subsequent graduation. It was a time of discovery that involved the tedious task of understanding. At times I felt exasperation and self doubt with respect to the sheer complexity and breadth of what there was to learn. Yet, there were times of joy whenever the fog lifted and the clarity and beauty of physical descriptions of natural phenomena moved in its place. It was a time that, unfortunately, passed all too quickly and is now some years in the past.
The great minds that accompanied me through my studies were Planck, Sommerfeld, Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, and a host of others who, for us physicists, are still very much alive today. They are great thinkers who contributed to unravelling the puzzles of nature and the forces which keep the world together through the most minute structures. I devoured the stories of Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner, of Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller – to name a few – and on how they created completely new technologies from theoretical concepts, how the energy stored in the nucleus of an atom could be used for the good of man and how it became possible in a single process to tap into this source of affordable, clean and plentiful energy on a large scale as never seen by man. Electricity illuminates our world, drives our machines, allow us to communicate over great distances, thus making our lives easier and more comfortable. It is a source of energy that staves off poverty and enables prosperity.
Electricity: manufactured by splitting atomic nuclei with neutrons, gained through the direct conversion of mass into energy. It is the principle by which (via the reverse process of fusion) the stars twinkle in the night sky, a principle by which our sun enables life on our planet.
As a physicist it fills me with great joy and pride to see how man is able to rouse this force of nature at the most minute structural level, then amplify, control, and use it for our benefit. As a physicist I have the fundamental understanding of the processes – I can imagine them and describe them. As a physicist I have neither fear of an atomic power plant nor of radioactivity. Ultimately I know that it is a natural phenomenon that is always around us, one we can never escape – and one that we never need to escape. And I know the first as a symbol of man’s capability to steer the forces of nature. As a physicist I have no fear of what nature has to offer. Rather I have respect. And this respect beckons us to seize the chances like those offered by neutrons, which can split nuclei and thus convert matter into energy. Anything else would be ignorance and cowardice.
Dark times in history
There were times in history when ignorance and cowardice overshadowed human life. It was a time when our ancestors were forced to lead a life filled with superstition and fear because it was forbidden to use creativity and fantasy. Religious dogma, like the earth being the centre of the universe, or creationism, forbade people to question. The forbiddance of opening a human body and examining it prevented questions from being answered. Today these medieval rules appear backwards and close-minded. We simply cannot imagine this way of thinking could have any acceptance.
But over the recent days I have grown concerned that we are headed again for such dark times. Hysterical and sensationalist media reporting, paired with a remarkably stark display of ignorance of technical and scientific interrelations, and the attempt by a vast majority of journalists to fan the public’s angst and opposition to nuclear energy – pure witch-burning disguised as modernity.
Freedom of research
So it fills me with sadness and anger on how the work of the above mentioned giants of physics is now being dragged through the mud, how the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century are being redefined and criminalized. The current debate in Germany is also a debate on freedom of research. The stigmatization and ostracism of nuclear energy, the demand for an immediate stop of its use, is also the demand for the end of its research and development. No job possibilities also means no students, which means no faculty, which then means the end of the growth of our knowledge. Stopping nuclear energy is nothing less than rejecting the legacy of Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr and all others. It is tantamount to scrapping it, labelling it as dangerous – all in a fit of ignorance. And just as creationists attempt to ban the theory of evolution from the school books, it almost seems as if every factual and neutral explanation in Germany is now in the process of being deleted.
The media suggests a nuclear catastrophe, a mega-meltdown, and that the apocalypse has already begun. It is almost as if the 10,000 deaths in Japan were actually victims of nuclear energy, and not the earthquake or the tsunami. Here again one has to remind us that Fukushima was first hit by an unimaginable 9.0 earthquake and then by a massive 10-meter wave of water just an hour later. As a result, the facility no longer found itself in a highly technological area, but surrounded by a desert of rubble. All around the power plant the infrastructure, residential areas, traffic routes, energy and communication networks are simply no longer there. They were wiped out. Yet, after an entire week, the apocalypse still has not come to pass. Only relatively small amounts of radioactive materials have leaked out and have had only a local impact. If one considers the pure facts exclusively, i.e. only the things we really know, then it exposes the unfounded interpretations of scientific illiterates in the media. One can only arrive to one conclusion: This sorrowful state will remain so.
In truth, this does not show that the ideologically motivated, fear-laden admonitions and warnings were correct. Fukushima illustrates that we are indeed able to control atomic energy. Fukushima shows that we can master it even when natural disasters beyond planning befall us. Still, at Fukushima the conflict between human creativity/competence continues to clamour against the bond energy in atomic nuclei. It’s a struggle that that shows what human intelligence, knowledge gained, passion, boldness, respect, and capability to learn allow us to do. Personally this does not fill me with apprehension, but with hope. Man can meet this challenge not only because he has to, but most of all because he wants to.
Even though I have not practiced physics for some time now, I will never be anything other than a scientist and researcher, and there would be no other place I would rather be than on site at Fukushima. There is no other place at the moment where so much can be learned about atomic energy, which keeps our world together deep inside, and the technical possibilities to benefit from it. Do we have the courage to learn? Do we accept – with respect and confidence – the opportunities we are confronted with? Fukushima will show us possibilities on how to use the direct conversion of matter into energy in a better and safer way, something that Einstein and others could have only dreamed of.
I am a physicist. My wish is to live in a world that is willing to learn and to improve whatever is good. I would only like to live in a world where great strides in physics are viewed with fascination, pride, and hope because they show us the way to a better future. I would only like to live in a world that has the courage for a better world. Any other world for me is unacceptable. Never. That’s why I am going to fight for this world, without ever relenting.
————————————————–
Translated from the German, with the permission of Peter Heller, by Bernd Felsche and Pierre Gosselin. Original text appeared here: http://www.science-skeptical.de/blog/fukushima/004149/
Maria Teresa Estevan Bolea and Agustin Alonso Santos analyse the nuclear alarm generated by Fukushima, crisis management and its implications.
Japón y las nociones urgentes de física nuclear
http://videos.libertaddigital.tv/2011-03-20/japon-y-las-nociones-urgentes-de-fisica-nuclear-ZYIlFMevgUc.html
Sorry it’s in Spanish
bob says:
March 20, 2011 at 8:21 pm
The anti-nuclear view has now been comprehensively proven to be wrong. No honest well-informed scientific-minded person can now henceforth credibly be ‘anti-nucler’.
This is a particularly stupid statement, like there is one “anti-nuclear view ” that summises the whole discussion. Something has just “proved” this view to be wrong. Nice reduction to a black and white issue , like climate!
So according to you , anyone who disagrees with your “proven” position is either uninformed, or dishonest (or both) and not credible.
In short you are saying ” the science is settle”. I would suggest that position is position is either uninformed, or dishonest (or both) and not credible.
Mikael Cronholm says:
First, things first … Mike should contact Pierre Gosselin (info at the NoTricksZone Blog) regarding the re-use of our translation of Peter Heller’s essay. Re-use is fine by me. Mike should keep in mind that a translation cannot perfectly reflect the original. I’m sure that you will appreciate that aspect. Pierre has Peter’s contact info. Peter seemed amenable to having a wider readership, in as many languages as possible.
Regarding the erm climate of debate in Sweden, it doesn’t look promising in the MSM that I get to see (and understand – my exposure to Swedish is about a month). But there are blogs such as Skeptical Swedish Scientists — the resistance underground. 😉
I hope that reason will prevail over idiots such as Sweden’s foreign minitstry which has advised Swedes within a 250 km radius of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to take Iodine tablets as a preventive measure. Swedish people must be immune to the complications of too much iodine intake — or their
rulersgovernment don’t care.Last: Nicely argued Mikael about the availability of energy being essential to what saves a great many Japaneses people from earthquakes and Tsunamis. Prosperity so that people can enjoy nature, and not suffer under it.
Thanks, Dr Heller, for a wonderful piece of common sense and perspective. Unlike you, I have never thrilled to the stories told by the great scientists, or been entranced by the objects in our galaxy, but perhaps that may or may not show a flaw in my character. I continue to be thrilled, however, by the stories of the great inventors, the innovators, the explorers and the mapmakers from various cultures. I have always been intrigued by the thinkers and the builders, the scientists, engineers, draughtsmen, cartographers and artists, who lightened the burdens of heavy labour, disease, hunger and ignorance that Man has struggled with over the millennia. To me, the stories of the discoveries by Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur, Newcomen, Harrison, Watt, Diesel, Benz, Bell, Mendel, Crick and Watson are as thrilling as any adventure novel.
As a regular and enthusiastic reador of WUWT, I have been shocked by some of the extreme positions taken by some of the regular posters here, who over time have acquired the persona of old friends for me; some of those attitudes provide gloomy evidence that we haven’t advanced that much in our heads from the primitive struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and untruth, faith and the absence of faith.
At the moment, the disaster-obsessed voices of the MSM seem like a Greek chorus of evil; the maxim that ‘ truth sets us free’ seems a good one to follow right now, but the doom-mongers make it difficult to find the truth.
Posts such as Dr Hellers and the calm, matter-of-fact post from Anthony outlining the facts about radioactivity and its measurement point the way forward.
Lengthy reconstructions of the failures in Japanese engineering design are not incredibly helpful right now, particularly to the unfortunate Japanese who have suffered a double disaster of unimaginable proportions. As a Kiwi, I thought the Christchrch earthquake was bad, but I struggle to understand the magnitude of the events in Japan and the resultant level of devastation.
all that chernobyl stuff
Really tricky stuff, radiation. Both the history of Marie Curie, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and conditions in Uranium ore mines have given radioactivity a bad name. Add the extreme toxicity of Plutonium and historic elevated levels of thyroid cancer in the proximity of nuclear facilities and you have a media winner. Media do not like people to play down issues but listen to whoever wants to boost the story to make it a news issue. Still what has happend and may happen in Fukushima is pretty dramatic. It reveals the significant risk associated with storing radiactive material in a concentrated site: the threat of a chain reaction is constantly luring. So yes, this disaster should trigger reflection on nuclear safety and deconcentration of radioactive material, it is distance, deconcentration, that makes nuclear material uncritical, to name just one of the fundamental designs issues to be thought over, another might be to add lead and tin alloy to the bottom of nuclear containers to mix with any molten radioactive fuel and prevent chain reactions from occurring.
I see that several posters have mentioned radiation hormesis, or the beneficial effect of low dose background radiation. This is an article that goes into detail of studies on the subject and the misinformation that has been used to support the Linear No-threshold Theory dose (LNT)
http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/nuclear.html?LNT%20Myth
I wish the Main Stream Media (MSM) would read (and understand and absorb) this, and stop unnecessarily alarming people who are far away from any possible harmful effects.
James Sexton says:
March 20, 2011 at 6:04 pm
“Towards the irrational fear of nuclear melt down, I would remind people that we were reduced to cooling the damned things down with firetrucks. (I don’t believe this is optimal.) We didn’t get to an awwww damn, but we got pretty close. We live, we learn and we adapt.”
I want to emphasize that the hysteria in the MSM that was manifested in reporting on nuclear reactors in Japan is a real threat to our well being as citizens and to our nation’s interests. Surely, there is no genuine scientist who would argue that the reporting was not hysterical. Now, let us apply this lesson to the history of AGW. I believe that MSM reporting on AGW has been no less hysterical than its reporting on the tragedy in Japan. We all know that Al Gore and his movie are truly hysterical in their claims about AGW. So does Dr. Muller whose remarks about Gore are “satirical” at best. The scientific community really must pull back from the hysteria of the MSM and the Al Gores. Not pulling back is a serious moral error. Scientists may believe that global warming is happening and that billions must be spent on it right away, but no scientist can believe the hysterical claims put out by the MSM and Al Gore.
On a related matter, if we permit high schools to teach Darwin’s Theory of Evolution as the truth then, inevitably, they are going to teach AGW as the truth.
I am not a proponent of teaching Creationism in high schools. However, we must teach Darwin with all the warts. If we do not then we are not teaching science. Science always comes with warts.
As an example, what is most likely Darwin’s greatest contribution to biology is the heuristic that sameness of morphology is the best evidence for common descent. This heuristic cannot be treated as a true physical hypothesis because it is false. There are creatures with almost identical morphology and no common ancestor. Every biologist recognizes these points. Yet all of Darwin is taught as true. Those who teach all of Darwin as true are not teaching science.
Star Trek 2, Wrath of Khan.
For Godsake Bones, why didn’t you tell Spock to take the Iodine tablets!?!
@ur momisugly Bernd Felsche. The Swedish government chartered two aircraft to evacuate Swedish citizens from Japan. Apparently the citizens are smarter than the government, because the first plane left with 2 (one!!!) “nuclear refugee” on board and the next one had 14 people on it…
Imagine the service level when you are the only passenger on the plane! “How many dinners would you like, sir? Should I just park the drinks cart right here and you can just wave to me when you need a refill, OK?”
What an effing waste, though!!!
A physisits would just be in the way. I am an engineer with 30 + years in commericial and Naval reactors I have begged my present employer to let me go.
“There’s no place on earth I would rather be right now than at Fukushima”
Sure buddy, try living in Tokyo right now with two small children.
The Good Doctor strikes a chord in me. Those of you who’ve read science fiction stories written about a “protectorate” protecting the ignorant masses, will see, if you’re like me, the current state of ignorance in the world with a strong sense of deja vu.
Globally, if we don’t increase the number of more well rounded in our society, we’re headed for another dark period. The Renaissance Education ideal produces graduates knowledgeable in Math, Science, Chemistry, History, Geography, multiple Languages, and Art. The idea that anyone has a “General Education” with less than that is flat nonsense. The base idea of this education is that we live in a world which we need to understand, from atoms and their constituent parts, to the cosmos – Sciences. We need to be able to describe that world – in math, to others. We need to understand the nature of the planet on which we live, the ground below us – Tectonics and Petrography, the air around and above us – Climatology, where our foodstuffs grow – economic Geography, and where others live – Political Geography. We need to know what has happened in the past, that we might avoid committing mistakes in the future – History. And because we are communicating human beings, we need to understand symbolic representation and aural communication – Art and Languages.
The sad part for me, is that for a couple of centuries this was the holy grail of education. They’ve lost the path today. If we’re to clean up the mess that Science and the “Humanities” have become, we need to start cracking.
One can only be horrified by the ignorance of the media and their trumpetting of untruths. Sadly a great part of it is that journalists generally have a poor understanding of science unless it fits their agenda and then they know all.
wayne says:
March 21, 2011 at 1:52 am
@ur momisugly Walter Schneider
Massimo PORZIO says:
March 21, 2011 at 2:04 am
Abour Walter Schneider said on March 21, 2011 at 12:17 am
Both of you are probably correct. The figures of concern are most likely off by a factor of a thousand.. It was late when I made those comments and not thinking too clearly anymore. That will teach me.
I will have another look at the figures and will correct them where necessary, but I must leave right now and cannot make the required correction until I get back later towards evening.
#
#
Dr. Dave says:
March 20, 2011 at 4:41 pm (Edit)
. . . “Darwinists stand a nearly equal chance at being wrong.”
Umm . . but no. Evolution is based on a fair amount of observation, measurement and , yes, logic.
Creationism is just faith. Nothing else.
That being said it is certainly time for Evolution 2.0 and the PC world we live in doesn’t even want to allow research into finding out if E 2.0 is likely. Personally I am happy in a world that evolves scientific thought and principles whereas Creationism/Intelligent design can’t do that because it is based entirely on faith, faith in a “creator” . The creator “is , was and always will be world without end”. That rather stops any further questioning.
Questioning evolution will bring dividends in expanded knowledge and if it is proved to be an inadequate explanation for natures diversity that doesn’t automatically “prove” Creationism to be true. Smash all shibboleths I say.
JimF says:
March 20, 2011 at 10:47 pm
Amino Acids (you’ve watched The Day after Tomorrow too many times)
You know, I did see it. I thought it was just Hollywood. And more of a chick flick than for guys.
So you think a 9.5 earthquake couldn’t happen with a 80 foot tsunami? Has an 80+ foot tsunami ever happened before? Cause I’m just wondering.
There is precious little difference between climatism and creationism. For those spouting one or the other, you live in the same kettle.
This comment is a replacement for the one I made March 21, 2011 at 12:17 am
That is because of a necessary correction that had to be made. The sentence,
had to be replaced with the sentence,
Thanks to wayne and to Massimo PORZIO, for pointing out the error.
E Smith says:
March 20, 2011 at 4:19 pm
I did a bit of converting and normalizing.
1 milliGray = 0.001 sievert
1 microGray = 0.000001 sievert
1 nanoGray = 0.000000001 sievert
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert#SI_multiples_and_conversions
Hourly dose examples
* Approximate radiation levels near Chernobyl reactor 4 and its fragments, shortly[clarification needed] after explosion are reported to be 10,000–300,000 mSv/hr
* Average individual background radiation dose: 0.23μSv/hr (0.00023mSv/hr); 0.17μSv/hr for Australians, 0.34μSv/hr for Americans[9][5][10]
From http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=4870
Ibaraki radiation levels: 63 – 86 nanoGray per hour (or 0.063μSv/hr to 0.086μSv/hr)
Keep in mind that Ibaraki the counters in Ibaraki are quite likely close to sea level, where natural background radiation would be much lower than in Colorado.
From http://www.radiationnetwork.com/
Radiation levels in Colorado (near Denver): ~24 – ~67 CPM (scintillation counts per minute, depending on location and elevation).
By my calculations:
1 CPM = 0.00926μSv/hr
24 CPM = 0.222μSv/hr (in Colorado)
63 CPM = 0.58338μSv/hr (in Colorado)
9.3 CPM = 0.086μSv/hr (in Ibaraki according to the map, at 2011 02 21 05:50 (JST))
12 CPM = 0.111μSv/hr (Vancouver)
10 CPM = 0,093μSv/hr (Texas)
The background radiation level at Ibaraki shown by the Japanase radiation map at http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=4870 is nothing out of the ordinary. It is slightly less than those for Vancouver or Texas.
However, the values shown in the table at the bottom of the map at http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=4870 for Ibaraki, Horiguchi Hitachinaka City are as follows:
Date and Time (JST) nGray/hr
2011 03 15 19:40 —1114
2011 03 15 23:00 —1065
2011 03 16 00:30 —1046
2011 03 16 03:10 —1030
2011 03 16 06:00 —2114
2011 03 16 17:40 —1044
2011 03 16 19:50 —1029
2011 03 16 23:50 —1011
2011 03 17 03:00 — 993
2011 03 17 16:40 — 881
2011 03 17 19:20 — 876
2011 03 17 21:40 — 872
2011 03 18 01:00 — 856
2011 03 18 03:00 — 847
2011 03 18 20:50 — 760
2011 03 19 01:00 — 749
2011 03 20 06:50 — 637
2011 03 20 08:40 — 631
2011 03 20 17:40 — 639
2011 03 21 04:20 —1635
2011 03 21 05:50 —2040
Those values are the equivalent of the range from 0.631μSv/hr to 2.040μSv/hr, a little higher than what would be normal levels of background radiation. Still, as of now no one knows for how long those levels will persist and whether at any point in time they will become dangerous.
It intrigues me that there is so much fear about possibly dangerous levels of radiation, but so little effort is being made to measure radiation on a regular basis and globally in many different places. Mind you, before we get to doing that, we should probably try to finish the other job, to try and come to grips with how to accurately measure temperatures. I doubt it that we can do that any time soon and that we will be able to do the much more difficult thing, measure radiation correctly in many different places without someone fudging the facts on that, too.
It is obvious from looking at the radiation map of Japan that the fudging and obfuscating is already in progress.
Here is a handy chart that I came across on slashdot
http://xkcd.com/radiation/
Keeps things in perspective
John Nelson says:
March 21, 2011 at 3:01 am
Peter Heller is right to be concerned about the rejection of rational thinking and scientific detachment in the debate about nuclear energy. He is wrong, however, to equate this with ‘creationism.’ The founders of modern science were all creationists: Bacon, Boyle, Pascal, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Steno, Jonathan Edwards, Dalton, Faraday, Joule, Kelvin, Maxwell and Pasteur to name a few.
It is the evolutionists who want to shut down debate, just as the AGW alarmists want to shut down sceptics. Biblical creationism is no less rational that naturalistic materialism; both proceed on certain presuppositions which are beyond empirical demonstration.
==================================================
Mr Lynn says:
March 20, 2011 at 9:21 pm
“Not to belabor the point, but the evolution of life forms on Earth is as much a fact as the existence of gravity ……..And that is but one example of the know-nothingism that Peter Heller decries, as the source of unwarranted and uninformed alarmism.”
/Mr Lynn
====================================================
And, Mr. Lynn, this comment is an example of what I decry.
Hmm, so the one that articulated the law of gravity, which you tout, seems to left behind when it comes to evolution. His writings on Optiks are illuminating. To equate evolutionary theory with the gravity law is a bit over the top, IMO. Mr. Lynn, I’ve read your comments in the past, again, in my opinion, they were a bit more cerebral than this offering. I would point out, the evolution and creationism aren’t necessarily exclusive, save for the word random. But then, I’ve never come to an understanding of the term randomly selective. It seems to be a bit of an oxymoron.
Because I may hold a different view, I am a “know-nothing”? Perhaps. Is that worse or better than a denigrator?
Perhaps, like other scientific posits, the problem isn’t the theory, but messaging?
James
*****
Alexander Vissers says:
March 21, 2011 at 4:48 am
It reveals the significant risk associated with storing radioactive material in a concentrated site: the threat of a chain reaction is constantly luring.
*****
No, please educate yourself. The fuel rods are designed & manufactured so that cannot occur, no matter how close in contact. Melt, possibly, but no “chain reaction”.
So refreshing to see the difference between a true scientist like physicist Peter Heller and a scientit climate astrologer like James Hansen.
One faces science head on, the other indulges science fiction fantasy.
One courageous, the other frozen by fear & delusion.
1] Can someone please remove the creationism/evolution discussion from this thread – it has no business being here and could quickly bring WUWT into disrepute. I’m not taking sides – just have that discussion elsewhere.
2] What has surprised me is the number of INTELLIGENT and WELL-EDUCATED adults that have been led to believe that Japan and China are about to be wiped off the map, were it not for the intervention of 50firemen who are at this moment melting away in the face of a half-dozen glowing reactors. It isn’t about education and intelligence. MOST people are HIGHLY suggestible – if someone “important” tells them something is true, they have a strong tendency to believe it. They will not engage their own brain to determine the facts but will leave the man on the telly to do it for them, without questioning.