Just heard on Face The Nation there is a plot afoot to explode a dirty bomb in front of FBI HQ in DC

[NNadir]

87. Whatever. I don't care.

In my opinion, anyone who thinks that a terrorist can isolate fission products or actinides from used nuclear fuel without being killed doesn't know shit from shinola about nuclear fuels. That's as obvious as the fact that the sun is lighting half of the Earth.

Basically I regard the claim to the contrary as talking out of one's ass.

After 20 years here, I'm used to the morally vapid shibboleth that the only reason to support a cause is for money, usually thrown around by bourgeois types because they refuse to believe that anyone can hold an ethical opinion without being paid for it, as it's beyond their limited ability to apprehend ethical issues.

This, of course, in my view, says more about the people making this representation than it says about me, but it's par for the course. It's been going on for decades.

Anti-nuke ignorance kills people, as strongly implied by the scientific reference co-authored by Jim Hansen, the famous climate scientist which I cite many times and cited above. Climate change is killing people, right now, and the world food supply is at risk, rivers are dying, fragile ecosystems are being desertified.

Again:

Prevented Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Historical and Projected Nuclear Power (Pushker A. Kharecha* and James E. Hansen Environ. Sci. Technol., 2013, 47 (9), pp 4889–4895)

It speaks volumes, moral volumes, and is coauthored by a person who has cared deeply about the fate of future generations:

Storms of My Grandchildren.

I suppose someone could argue that his Grandchildren must be paying him to care, but I'd find that absurd, stupid actually.

As it happens, about 18,000 people will die today from air pollution, as shown in the famous Lancet publication about which anti-nukes couldn't give a shit, and about which no amount of money would make them give a shit.

And yet these same people want to tell me about "risk."

I repeat this text often to give a sense of the scale of the human cost of anti-nukism, whether proclaimed with head up the ass insisting that no one does anything except for money, or otherwise:

It is here: Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (Lancet Volume 396, Issue 10258, 17–23 October 2020, Pages 1223-1249). This study is a huge undertaking and the list of authors from around the world is rather long. These studies are always open sourced; and I invite people who want to carry on about Fukushima to open it and search the word "radiation." It appears once. Radon, a side product brought to the surface by fracking while we all wait for the grand so called "renewable energy" nirvana that did not come, is not here and won't come, appears however: Household radon, from the decay of natural uranium, which has been cycling through the environment ever since oxygen appeared in the Earth's atmosphere.

Here is what it says about air pollution deaths in the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Survey, if one is too busy to open it oneself because one is too busy carrying on about Fukushima:

The top five risks for attributable deaths for females were high SBP (5·25 million [95% UI 4·49–6·00] deaths, or 20·3% [17·5–22·9] of all female deaths in 2019), dietary risks (3·48 million [2·78–4·37] deaths, or 13·5% [10·8–16·7] of all female deaths in 2019), high FPG (3·09 million [2·40–3·98] deaths, or 11·9% [9·4–15·3] of all female deaths in 2019), air pollution (2·92 million [2·53–3·33] deaths or 11·3% [10·0–12·6] of all female deaths in 2019), and high BMI (2·54 million [1·68–3·56] deaths or 9·8% [6·5–13·7] of all female deaths in 2019). For males, the top five risks differed slightly. In 2019, the leading Level 2 risk factor for attributable deaths globally in males was tobacco (smoked, second-hand, and chewing), which accounted for 6·56 million (95% UI 6·02–7·10) deaths (21·4% [20·5–22·3] of all male deaths in 2019), followed by high SBP, which accounted for 5·60 million (4·90–6·29) deaths (18·2% [16·2–20·1] of all male deaths in 2019). The third largest Level 2 risk factor for attributable deaths among males in 2019 was dietary risks (4·47 million [3·65–5·45] deaths, or 14·6% [12·0–17·6] of all male deaths in 2019) followed by air pollution (ambient particulate matter and ambient ozone pollution, accounting for 3·75 million [3·31–4·24] deaths (12·2% [11·0–13·4] of all male deaths in 2019), and then high FPG (3·14 million [2·70–4·34] deaths, or 11·1% [8·9–14·1] of all male deaths in 2019).

Now, if someone thinks that taking an ethical position on this matter can only come from "feeding at the trough," I am spectacularly disinterested in their opinion of me, what they dislike about me, or any such bullshit. I am disinterested, and frankly disgusted by ethically withered people of this type.

I would be appalled, in fact, if I received any modicum of respect from such a person. I am, as always, happy to dismiss such people, because they deserve no more than that.

Have a wonderful weekend.