a
A "Frontline" PBS broadcast named "Nuclear
Reaction" resembles, in our opinion, a promotional film for
nuclear electricity. Like other Frontlines, Nuclear Reaction
is likely to be broadcast repeatedly. After
writing PBS about one of the program's many factual errors, we
also acquired the program's verbatim transscript. Below, we select
a few of the Frontline errors for correction.
b
Inherited Effects. The narrator says (p.4): "Much
to the scientists' surprise, there was no increase in
inherited mutations [among children born to Japanese
atomic-bomb survivors]. Despite the science fiction films,
this fear proved unfounded." Correction, Please! Inherited
mutations and inherited afflictions are radiation-inducible.
Our assertion is based solidly on three pieces of undisputed
human evidence: (A) Ionizing radiation causes gene-injuries,
most of which are repairable and some of which are permanent.
(B) Not all cells die after acquiring permanently damaged
genes. (C) Many germ cells with permanently damaged genes do
result in live births --- otherwise, there would be no
inherited afflictions in humankind.
c
What follows from A, B, and C? Ionizing radiation
contributes to mankind's burden of inherited afflictions.
Even James Neel and other authors of the A-Bomb Studies
(mentioned by Frontline) have emphasized the same conclusion.
It is basic logic that, if people do studies which are
incapable of detecting the effect to be tested, then failure
to find the effect does not mean that the effect is absent and
does not mean that "fear is unfounded."
d
"No Choice" Except Nuclear Power. A French
utility-man says (p.14): "In France, we have no oil, no gas,
no coal, no choice [except nuclear power]." Correction,
Please! France could have developed solar energy instead.
Solar energy includes wind-power, wave-power, direct solar
heat, photovoltaic power, biomass, power from
temperature-differences in ponds and in the ocean. Solar energy
can be used to make clean hydrogen fuel, when fuel is needed.
e
Even A Sheet Of Paper Is Protection From
Plutonium. As the narrator says, the alpha particles emitted
by plutonium "can even be stopped by a thin sheet of paper"
(p.16). This is demonstrably true. Honesty, Please!
Frontline chose not to explain that the paper-demonstration
shows why alpha radiation is, in reality, an especially
ferocious menace to human cells. Alpha particles are large
high-speed, high-energy particles which interact so violently
with paper or with human cells that the alpha particles
transfer all of their energy to the paper or to human cells in
a very short distance. The shorter the distance, the fewer
are the cells which receive all the energy --- and all the
damage. Because of this, the chance increases that the
radiation-induced damage will be complex and non-repairable by
the cell.