Jay Lehr, science director at the Heartland Institute, has some advice for those wondering if radiation from the crippled Japanese nuke plants could mean massive local deaths and even cross the Pacific and reach America.
In an interview on Fox News, Lehr told host Bill Hemmer that not only is the U.S. not at risk of experiencing nuclear fallout, but he also drew stark differences between atomic bombs and nuclear reactors.
“We only have to look at the worst nuclear disaster in history, that was Chernobyl, where there was no containment structure,” he said. “10 years later when all the facts were in there were less than 10 fatalities from that explosion — only people right near the plant were affected by the radiation, 1,000 people got leukemia, 998 were cured … . It was predicted that tens of thousands of people would get cancer … [but] this never happened. This is not an atomic bomb and people don’t understand a nuclear reactor is something very different than an atomic bomb.”
“There are horrible, horrible problems in Japan and the stress that this is creating is unwarranted, unnecessary,” he added, even going as far as to call stories about a possible meltdown — which he says won’t produce massive destruction — “fear mongering”:
Lehr’s comments come as the AP reports dangerous levels of radiation in Japan. A U.S. nuclear industry official says there is evidence that the primary containment structure at one of the stricken Japanese reactors has been breached, raising the risk of further release of radioactive material.
Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.