THE NUKE HOAX

[Flabbergasted]

I would suggest the neutral researcher ask themselves... does each scene look convincing, in its own right, to them? Using 21st century eyes?

Looks as credible as a 3-dollar bill. Is that Charlie Chaplin´s head at 2:38?

[hoi.polloi]

Great work, Critical Mass, and thank you for phrasing everything so clearly for the average reader. If this doesn't help wake the average person up about the hoaxing involved in the "nuclear" scare, I don't know what will — except more of your good work!

[Critical Mass]

Hoi,

We are living in a world where Scientists believe you can cause an Earthquake from space & Historians push imagery & damage effects which can not be recreated even when using their own tools.

I thank Cluesforum for being the one place on this bizarre planet where true scientific skepticism can be practiced.


For those interested a 0.1 PSI blast, using the most commonly available tables, must represent a roughly 5mph window rattler...



... lets be nice & call it 10mph.

Only someone as inherently naive & trusting as an ivory tower academic could possibly believe a 10mph wind sent seismic signals 9300km away or collapsed a bomb shelter.


If the neutral researcher agrees that those claims must clearly be false then I ask them this... what other claims about our 'atomic past' have just been lazily accepted by those who profess to be skeptics?

[Critical Mass]

Project Shoal a 'small' 12kt underground nuclear test set off 30 miles away from from the City of Fallon. Here's the test & local residents stating they didn't feel a thing...


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVBKgAdsvUw

Contemporary accounts discuss '200 military witnesses' & seismic records from Berkeley.



Modern accounts like those of Politician, Nuclear Project Chair & Author Michon Mackedon take a different tack.

They help push the 'Nuclear tourism' angle which I've discussed before.

On the day of the test, the public was invited to watch from a distance of about 4 1/2 miles away on State Route 839. A parking area has been made along the highway and next to the road leading to ground zero for the observers and those driving on the highway were stopped just before the blast occurred. Ground zero is just five miles from Sand Mountain.

Another claim from the same article apparently made 22 days later (although I've been unable to verify it)...

Although it was reported that no radiation leaked into the atmosphere during the test, the Fallon Eagle–Standard reported on Dec. 17, 1963 the drillers had encountered temperatures of 600 degrees and radiation that peaked at 40 roentgens per hour.

Either way it's perhaps interesting to know that Michon Mackedon claims that she herself witnessed '5 or 6 atomic tests' from 300 miles away!

3
He was the head of the construction company, and Fallon had helped pave the roads into the Nevada Test Site, and very much an advocate of atomic testing, and he used to get there were four kids in the family, actually three and the fourth came in ’52, but that’s another story. He used to get us up at the crack of dawn on a day of a “shot,” make the orange juice, make the pancakes, and we’d sit in front of this bay window in Fallon and watch what I call in the book the Southern Sunrise. And, I do remember just the phenomena, the spectacle. I don’t remember much else except that we would go to school, grammar school throughout the Fifties, and everybody would talk about the test at Las Vegas that morning. So, I witnessed, over a distance of some 300 miles, oh, at least five or six of those tests. I can’t remember exactly, but we could see them very well from Fallon, Nevada.

[Critical Mass]

The trouble with 'eyewitnesses'

Is that they're, to be frank, often full of bullshit.

Another Nuke skeptic posted a video tracking whether or not the idea that some people thought Nukes could be a hoax was spreading or not


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKwcqUMCvEQ

At about 0:44 seconds we come across a former RAF man who authoritatively & confidently describes his experiences when he witnessed the H-bomb test at Maralinga in 1963.... feeling the heat on the "back of his legs from 40 miles away".

One might be impressed with such testimony.

Others may point out that there has never been an alleged H-bomb test at Maralinga, the last 'major Atomic test' is alleged to have taken place in 1957 & the only things supposedly taking place at Maralinga in 1963 were High explosive 'dirty bomb' tests.

Former RAF man indeed.

[Critical Mass]

There are several scenes of the Trinity test.

'Distant fireball' with a pan



Distant fireball



Close up of explosion



and 'slow motion close up of cloud above the explosion'



All of these scenes could easily be the result of a large quantity of conventional explosive indeed my suspicion is that they're in fact the 108 tonne test a theory I've discussed previously.

However there is one oddity which annoyed me somewhat & that is the 'slow motion close up' of the 'cloud above the explosion'. It always appeared to me to have been cropped. Supposedly it's meant to be showing us the balloons vaporizing yet why would 'the Directors' have set up their camera in such a way? Cropping a shot is not an easy thing to do with film either... yet the shot was the same in everything I watched official test movies, HD re-releases, newsreels.

I just filed the oddity away as sometimes you can never figure out such things or why these people chose to do it 'that way'.

Yesterday I found this 1945 newsreel and at 2:37 and for the first time I saw the full version of the slow motion scene.


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASmtrCZ5uFs

... what you have here is a normal speed rocket trail followed by a ludicrously slow motion 'atomic fireball'.



Surely not even an academic could believe that you can have both normal speed events & slow motion speed events occurring in the same shot?

Oh & there's clearly no 'barrage balloons' either.

This is definitive proof of media fakery being used for the very first 'Atomic test'. It also appears they attempted to hide this particular mistake... quite successfully of course... at least until now.



PS

There's also another scene of Trinity which I call 'the instant shockwave' but I've never been able to verify it. It only seems to appear in documentaries.

[Critical Mass]

The academic mind is so stunningly naive you sometimes wonder if it is not deliberately deceptive.

Alex Wellerstein on the Nuke hoax (& 'Moon landing')...

For those who are curious: The “all nukes are a hoax” theory seems to stem from a couple different sources. The technical argument is that fast neutron chain reactions are impossible, because the fission cross-section of U-235 is small for fast neutrons. The cross-section is indeed small for high-energy neutrons, which is why reactors use a moderator to slow the neutrons down and increase the likelihood of their capture by the small amounts of U-235 in the nuclear fuel. What is weird is that the people making this argument don’t seem to realize that this is exactly why you use 80-90% enriched material in a bomb — it is to overcome this low probability of fissioning by just putting a ridiculous number of targets in the area. It is also why there are tampers, neutron reflectors, and the like, and also why even a relatively sophisticated weapon like the Fat Man only fissioned something like 13-18% of its fissile material, and the Little Boy bomb only fissioned around 1% of its fissile material. They also have weirdly interpreted the “Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not that different from the firebombing of Tokyo” argument (to a rather absurd conclusion, that it was just a firebombing, despite the fact that firebombing and atomic bombing have really different outcomes), believe that the photographs of the mushroom clouds are all faked (despite the fact that such a level of fakery was really quite beyond the technology of the 1940s — similar to the “Apollo moon hoax,” it would have been easier to make an atomic bomb in the 1940s than to fake an atomic bomb convincingly on film, at least to the degree of documentation that we have on them from the time), and believe that every scientist in the entire world (except for the random engineer who came up with this dumb theory) is in on the secret and has reasons to propagate it indefinitely (and I am apparently in on the hoax as well, to my surprise). The one person I e-mailed with about this, just trying to see what the limits of their rationality were and what it spawned from, eventually let on that to him, one of the most convincing pieces of evidence for this theory is the number of Jews who were involved in the creation of the bomb, wink wink, nudge nudge. This probably hits at the real origin of this bad idea — just another form of mis-matched anti-Semitism grafting itself onto another source. That my last name is a Jewish-sounding one did not apparently resonate with the person e-mailing me.

His opinions can be broken down as thus...

(I) It's mathematically possible, under some models, to construct a working atomic bomb.

(ii) I think he's saying that the fact that Hiroshoma & Nagasaki look like they were firebombed is 'a coincidence'?

(iii) That the fakery was beyond 1940's Technology (and that faking the Moon mission was beyond 1960's technology!)!

(iv) Every scientist including Alex would have to be deliberately 'in on the hoax'... which would obviously be impractical.

(v) Those who see that there are serious problems with the imagery, forensic evidence & eyewitness testimony for our ancestors Nuclear story are 'wink wink, nudge nudge' 'Anti-Semitic'.


I suppose my thoughts on these opinions would be thus...

(I) Has any mathematician trained (or self taught... like most here) in the 'art of deception' actually looked at these models with a critical eye?

(ii) Has he ever once imagined that it might not be 'a coincidence'? Or that not everything he is told about an event is automatically true?

(iii) Hmmm Alex here is clearly unaware that officially travelling matte compositing & 'bluescreen' were available in the 1930's and we've basically always been able to fake photo's. Seeing as how 'films' are just a series of photographs displayed quickly & in sequence there are few limits to what could be achieved given time, money & will.

However, as this forum has pointed out, they clearly made numerous errors easily seen with 21st century eyes.

So with regards to the 1940's 'Atomic events' & evaluating the imagery which we can confidently say came from the 1940's we have...

Trinity discussed in my post above

Hiroshima & Nagasaki... from what I can tell the only thing actually shown in the 40's are the alleged bomb damage effects, various interviews & those 'iconic photos'.

Crossroads discussed here & mentioned here

Eniwetok... the footage was released in the early 50's but let us look at it anyways.


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV5tYx3Esiw



That is an animation layered over a slow motion explosion.

Oh & notice our old favorite, the 'movie white out effect'. As per usual the shadows are completely unchanged by the 'intense new light source'... besides which why are there even 'pre-explosion shadows' anyways? These were supposed to be night tests!




Joe-1... as with Eniwetok the Joe-1 footage was certainly 'released' later. The only thing available in the 1940's were panicked proclamations by Politicians, the Media & 'Scientists'.


All of the 1940's imagery is not only easily fakeable... a lot of it is provably so.


As for his idea that this 1960's transparent travesty would be too expensive to pull off... I would suggest they were being tight with the money & perhaps should actually have hired Kubrik for the job! Compartmentalization though... it's a bitch.


(iv) The implied suggestion here is that 'Scientists' would have to be deliberately 'in on it' because they're far too smart to have been fooled or conned like the rest of us.

It is this inherent arrogance which makes 'Scientists' the perfect target for a con.

Additionally he's clearly pretending that he's never heard of compartmentalization... which is an odd thing to do for a supposed expert on the 'Manhattan project'.

(v) There's always 'a term' with these people isn't there... they just have to get one of those terms in. 'Conspiracy theorist', 'Anti-Semite', 'Crazy'. Why can that term not be 'skeptic' or perhaps 'someone who can actually use their own eyes & ears'?

Whoever it was that Alex may once have emailed may well have been 'anti-Semitic' in his eyes... they may also have been 'left-handed Buddhists who liked to gamble'. Seeing as how those things are not relevant to the alleged 'Atomic bomb' it would seem rather silly to bring them up. It's such a weak point it barely even counts as ad hominem.

[Flabbergasted]

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV5tYx3Esiw

(explosion at 1:14)

In basically all the A-bomb videos you have been posting, the kabooom is heard simultaneously with the initial flash from the explosion, regardless of the distance between "ground zero" and the "camera". The exact same phenomenon (or rather, error) has been pointed out in videos of rocket launches/disasters.
How does "wink-wink" Alex explain that? Was the sound recorded by microphones with wireless transmitters suspended by fire-and-shockwave-resistant balloons right above the blast site? Or was it subsequently "corrected" for the sake of those thick audiences who would never get their minds around the flash-to-bang method anyway?

Lovely closing statement: "...the world´s mightiest agent of destruction presents its unspoken and unanswerable argument for peace [bullying] and for preparedness [guzzling more taxpayer money]".

[Critical Mass]

How does "wink-wink" Alex explain that? Was the sound recorded by microphones with wireless transmitters suspended by fire-and-shockwave-resistant balloons right above the blast site? Or was it subsequently "corrected" for the sake of those thick audiences who would never get their minds around the flash-to-bang method anyway?

Lovely closing statement: "...the world´s mightiest agent of destruction presents its unspoken and unanswerable argument for peace [bullying] and for preparedness [guzzling more taxpayer money]".

'Alex the winker' would probably concede himself that virtually all 'atomic bomb test' soundtracks are fake... in terms of reasonable delay you've got the 1953 'Annie' test (uploaded by Wellerstein himself) &, err, that's it.

I suppose you could argue we've also got the 'live' TV footage of an 'atomic bomb test' but, I don't know about you, I can't hear no bang.


PS

I emailed Wellerstein at the same time I posted on Cluesforum... his only response is to point you Flabbergasted at his 'Sound of the bomb' article, try & make a rather irrelevant case about the Eniwetok tests supposedly taking place in what he calls the 'early morning' & he gave me the old...

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"

... a quote which is basically a Cluesforum motto & something we all agree with.


Interestingly I decided to re-review the 'Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #03' which covers the Sandstone operation.

There's nothing particularly convincing... a flash here, a shot of a 'cloud in the sky' there, a slow motion explosion or two, a radioactive robot plane... the usual.


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOs3Qx09ZI0

I did notice however that at 16:04 the imagery which nowadays has been alleged to be the 108 tonne test imagery is in that 'official movie' described as Trinity footage.

My favorite quote from the official test movie...

"These were fabricated releases of power"

[Maat]

How does "wink-wink" Alex explain that? Was the sound recorded by microphones with wireless transmitters suspended by fire-and-shockwave-resistant balloons right above the blast site? Or was it subsequently "corrected" for the sake of those thick audiences who would never get their minds around the flash-to-bang method anyway?

Lovely closing statement: "...the world´s mightiest agent of destruction presents its unspoken and unanswerable argument for peace [bullying] and for preparedness [guzzling more taxpayer money]".

'Alex the winker' would probably concede himself that virtually all 'atomic bomb test' soundtracks are fake... in terms of reasonable delay you've got the 1953 'Annie' test (uploaded by Wellerstein himself) &, err, that's it.

I suppose you could argue we've also got the 'live' TV footage of an 'atomic bomb test' but, I don't know about you, I can't hear no bang.

PS

I emailed Wellerstein at the same time I posted on Cluesforum... his only response is to point you Flabbergasted at his 'Sound of the bomb' article, try & make a rather irrelevant case about the Eniwetok tests supposedly taking place in what he calls the 'early morning' & he gave me the old...

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"

... a quote which is basically a Cluesforum motto & something we all agree with.

[...]

My favorite quote from the official test movie...

"These were fabricated releases of power"

Excellent work, Critical Mass! "These were fabricated releases of power", indeed

Interesting that "Alex the Winker" [Wanker] should misuse that “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” quote — doesn’t he realize the burden of proof lies with the claimant (i.e. the State & its advocates/gatekeepers), not the disbelievers?

Also interesting is his non-committal reply to a posting of what must be the most ridiculous “test” footage of all in the comment section:

Nuke-Hoax-Wellerstein-gatekeeper.jpg http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/07/ ... bomb-1953/


Re my post on August 19th, 2012, p. 18:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/ ... clear-bomb


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlE1BdOAfVc

Five men agree to stand under an Atomic Bomb. Simply the worstest stupidest fakest shit I've ever seen!

And the writer of this blog also asks:

If you are hit by two Atomic Bombs should you have kids?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/ ... -have-kids

No, you should be dead you fucking clown!

Crikey, that really takes the cake!

My fave is the stupid line in their hammy script trying to suggest the lousy 50s film FX 'blackout' is a 'real' phenomenon unique to "atomic explosions",
@ 1 min into the video:
“...a fireball that is red, the sky looks black about it...” Yep, it's so powerful it can turn off the sun!

And, in the second vid on that blog we have a retro/precurser (hehe) to the exclamations dubbed over 9/11 vids:

"Holy shit!" x 2 @ YT vid time-start: 3m14s and 3m24s

[Ref from http://nuclearsecrecy.com/blog/2012/07/ ... bomb-1953/ by Alex Wellerstein]

It seems the perps' Hollywood fakery artists have been busy creating new hi-res versions (concepts) of 'A-bomb tests' too, just like their 9/11 counterparts...

Here's a fascinating website:
“a division of Visual Concept Entertainment”

Read about its creator, Peter Kuran:



This video, uploaded by atomcentral on Dec 11, 2011, is cunningly presented as a real aerial film of an atomic bomb test in 1951, in full color and from a static camera view — from what and how, a 3 mile high 'sky hook' ?


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11e8XyUBqRQ

Gotta the classic “camera shake” at the end

A preview of Kuran's "documentary" 'work':


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvnWXf6UZXY

More @ http://wn.com/trinity_and_beyond_clip

*************************************************************

http://www.facebook.com/peter.kuran

And Alex Jones is a listed 'favorite'

[Flabbergasted]

Here's a fascinating website:
“a division of Visual Concept Entertainment”

Read about its creator, Peter Kuran:

I remember that post very well, and that "Atom Central" webpage, with its choice of imagery ... you know, the iconic photograph of the charcoal ships solemnly awaiting their doom off the Marshall Islands.

[Maat]

I remember that post very well, and that "Atom Central" webpage, with its choice of imagery ... you know, the iconic photograph of the charcoal ships solemnly awaiting their doom off the Marshall Islands.

Oh yeah, what a fauxto! It has to be seen full size to really appreciate the [bull-]artistry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crossroads

Baker. The bomb, known as Helen of Bikini, was detonated 90 feet (27 m) underwater on July 25, 1946. Radioactive sea spray caused extensive contamination. A third deep water test, Charlie, planned for 1947, was canceled primarily because of the United States Navy's inability to decontaminate the target ships after the Baker test. Ultimately, only nine target ships were able to be scrapped rather than scuttled.

Full res ► http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Operation_Crossroads_Baker_Edit.jpg

Captioned: “Mushroom-shaped cloud and water column from the underwater Baker nuclear explosion of July 25, 1946. Photo taken from a tower on Bikini Island, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crossroads#mediaviewer/File:Operation_Crossroads_Baker_Edit.jpg

And, of course, Kuran's "better-quality version" of the "original footage":


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9wFvk3ybqc

Published on Mar 15, 2014

Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie is a 1995 American documentary film directed by Peter Kuran and narrated by William Shatner. Using restored archive footage, the film traces the development of nuclear weapons and their testing, from America's Trinity test of 1945 (hence the title) to the first Chinese atomic bomb test in 1964. Kuran's commentary on the DVD version claims that the DVD replaces some of the original footage with better-quality versions. There are some short special effects sequences too. The film has also since been released on Blu-ray.

[More details re "Baker test" in video notes section]

[Critical Mass]

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlE1BdOAfVc

Five men agree to stand under an Atomic Bomb. Simply the worstest stupidest fakest shit I've ever seen!

I remember that post well... IIRC it was a pretty decisive one whilst I was still a newbie at this research (early last year).

For those interested the '5 men under ground zero' footage is supposedly from the 'John' test of Operation Plumbbob 1957


The official 'Operation Plumbbob' movies also feature one of my favorite 'compression artifacts'... a transparent mushroom stem



You can still see the mountains through the cloud.

[Critical Mass]

One of the things that Academics love about Nuclear bombs is the quantity of evidence... each particular item of evidence may not be of a particularly great quality but the sheer quantity of stories does seem pretty overwhelming*.

One of Alex 'the winker' Wellerstein's pet projects is his 760mb 'District History of the Manhattan Project'... a large archive of mostly mundane documents dealing with items as far ranging as press releases, experimental equipment, purification techniques, the width of roads needed for Oak Ridge, personality clashes between technicians & enlisted men etc

It appears never ending.

Nonetheless I've begun giving it a perusal & have come to learn of a few thing I had never heard of before. So I thought I might share some of them.

Alexander P. de Seversky

His wiki article does not mention this but apparently he was involved in a bit of a 'controversy' in 1945-46 over his readers digest article regarding Hiroshima & Nagasaki. You can read 'Atomic Bomb Hysteria' here.

Apparently he aired his views at a 'Senate special committee on Atomic energy' in February 1946 but, as the Manhattan History puts it, "his statements were disproved by citation of facts & figures". (B1V04C06 page 45)


I learned from the same document (on page 18) of a new symptom of atomic bombing... have you guys ever heard of this one?

Because of the peculiar psychology or the Japanese who wanted to please the interrogator one must view with suspicion a good deal of the information gathered by subsequent parties on the location of survivors at the time of the explosion, for the number of unscathed survivors from the center increased with time. Actually the shock of the experience frequently caused annnesia in survivors and very few near zero escaped lethal gamma ray exposure.

From a press release for New Mexico I learned of the "blind girl near Albuquerque" who saw the flash of the Trinity test & exclaimed "What was that!" (B1V04C08P01 page 26)

Funnily enough snopes has an article on this & determines it to be 'not quite' true... Gee, ya' think!


I also learned that this was said of the 1946 Bikini Atoll 'Operation Crossroads' tests (B8V03C08 page 5)...

It has been truly said that the operation was the most observed, most photographed, most talked of scientific test ever conducted. Paradoxically, it may also be said that was the most publicly advertised secret test ever conducted

... which both reminded me of that other 'most documented event in history' and made me wonder why we have so little footage of the tests nowadays? We basically have the official test movie & a few dodgy photos.



BONUS CLIP

I've as yet been unable to verify when this was meant to be... still it is clearly an HD 're-release' of something.


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paCUhiUxxIw




* It perhaps should be noted however that during WW2 officially a huge quantity of deception was officially conducted for instance FUSAG, The 'Ghost Army', Operation Mincemeat.

[ICfreely]

https://sites.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/nuclear-energy/public-perception

The above NCSU article regarding the media’s role in shaping public perception of nuclear energy is a MUST READ for anyone clued in on media fakery and the nuke hoax. Here are a few excerpts along with my two cents.

Frameworks

“Each time information is presented in the media, it is wrapped in a so-called “package” or framework1. This is not a bias towards a certain feeling towards the subject, rather an envelope containing a unique way to approach information. In this way, one could be either for or against a topic and stay within one framework. Frameworks are characterized by symbols, which make it easy to convey a succinct message and are shown in all forms of common media—newspaper, TV, cartoons, opinion columns, movies, etc. Once presented, there is much room for debate within a framework.”

- “Packages/frameworks” are nothing more than euphemisms for mental cages. Mental cages designed to keep you trapped in fear. You’re free to think within the box but if you dare to think outside the box you’ll be branded a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist.

1945 (Hiroshima) – 1960’s

The Progress package – “…a dualist package that states that “civilization would vanish in a cataclysmic holocaust, or the atomic future would be unimaginably bright.”1 The media presented nuclear technology as headed down one of these two paths.”

-Symbol: Mushroom Cloud and the sudden and enormous destruction associated with it.

“…nuclear energy itself seemed to be a non-issue. Most dissociated the bomb from nuclear energy, so there was no major public opinion for or against the latter. It is also important to note that there were virtually no other frameworks available to the US population through the media during this time…”

-1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis – the bomb, cold war nuclear proliferation dominant issues

-1966 - Fermi reactor semi-meltdown – no talk of environmental consequence

-1969 - Apollo 11 mooning of America, UNESCO meeting for 1st earth day

“Disney also released an episode regarding the public education of the “atomic age” through explanations by Walt Disney. This perhaps best sums up the availability of the progress schema of the time.”

-We can always count on uncle Walty and his team of imagineers to “educate” us can’t we?

1970’s – Three Mile Island (1979)

-1970 - 1st earth day

-1972 - Apollo 17 ‘Blue Marble’ – symbol of modern environmental movement

The Energy Independence package – “…framework that focused heavily on America’s dependence on foreign sources of energy. In this framework, nuclear energy, domestic oil, natural gas, and coal were presented as feasible alternatives to this foreign dependence. This package is heavily drawn on when referring to the Arab oil embargo of 1973.”

The Soft Paths package – “…emphasized individual attention to individual, ecological consequences of energy use. Those who were in opposition to nuclear energy in the context of this framework were against centralized technology (nuclear energy being more centralized than most) and supported living harmoniously with the environment. Those who supported it focused on nuclear power’s relatively low carbon emissions to aid with harmonious living.”

“An environmental wing, Friends of the Earth, presented the following example of this package: “Do we wish to continue a way of life that is wasteful of energy, relies on highly centralized technologies, and is insensitive to ecological consequences? Or do we want to become a society more in harmony with its natural environment?””

The Public Accountability package – “…epitomized by Ralph Nader, included those who attacked corporations for being more protective of their industry than of the public. In a speech given by Nader, the hypothetical question was posed: “If Exxon owned the sun, would we have solar energy?” This populist view emphasized the need for public involvement in energy decisions.”

-Thank God for the likes Ralph Nader and Ron Paul who have the courage to “speak truth to power.”

The Not Cost Effective package – “…highlighted the many unsolved problems and delays associated with nuclear energy. The promise of delivering energy “too cheap to meter” was becoming a myth setback by setback. Those who have this mindset point out the heavy initial capital, the mining costs, and the waste created from the nuclear reactors as examples of how nuclear energy does not stand up to its energy production gains. In the antinuclear movement, the Union of Concerned Scientists proposed the following argument: “When one compares the costs and benefits of nuclear energy with the alternatives, it makes a poor showing. Nuclear power, through nobody’s fault in particular, has turned out to be a lemon, and it is foolish to keep pouring good money after bad by supporting the continued development of nuclear energy.””

Cost of power plant construction surged due in part to “President Carter’s speeches emphasizing the need for strong governmental regulation of nuclear reactors, lest its production be diverted to weapon use.”

-How convenient!

The Runaway package – “…is a grin and bear it view of nuclear energy. It accepts the consequences of nuclear energy as too large for us to tackle anytime in the near future and suggests, fatalistically, that research be focused on ways to minimize the negative consequences of this technology. Instead of being anti-nuclear, this package supports a resigned view and is expressed heavily in political cartoons.”

“A scant few weeks before the Three Mile Island incident, there was a major turning point in public opinion of nuclear energy due to the film China Syndrome. This movie encompassed two frameworks—public accountability and runaway, but more importantly provided symbols and visual evidence of what a nuclear meltdown could be like, albeit fake. With this movie came a sharpened awareness of the dangers of a nuclear meltdown, which ironically occurred partially at Three Mile Island a few weeks later.”

-Less ironic and more predictive programming as usual.

Three Mile Island to Chernobyl

“With the disaster at Three Mile Island (TMI), the media linked the iconic cooling tower to the disaster. Replacing the mushroom cloud as a symbol, the cooling tower was widely used and is still used today.”

The Devil’s Bargain package – “This encompasses the idea that there is a price to pay for all of the benefits reaped initially from nuclear power. This price could be dangers to the environment, to our physical health, and to the health of the world.”

Chernobyl to present day

The NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) package – “…represents this apathetic attitude towards the building of nuclear reactors—proponents accept a need for nuclear energy reactors to be built, but not when it is in or near where they live.”

-Makes sense. Who’d want those scary cooling towers in their back yard with a clumsy moron like Homer Simpson at the helm?

US Trends

“An interesting note regarding the presentation of information to the public is the impact of trust on public opinion. In a survey, it was found that the sources that people trust the most are scientists and engineers working on nuclear energy (75% trust these sources)2. However, when asked if they trusted energy companies and safety authorities, 50% responded as trusting these sources. The least trusted source was news anchors.”

“It was also found that as knowledge of how a reactor works and the specifics of nuclear energy increases, so does the support of nuclear energy. However, in the same study, most people stated that they feel relatively uninformed.”

-In other words, even though people are admittedly uninformed about unclear energy they maintain blind faith in its high priests. Sheesh, talk about cognitive dissonance!

Conclusion

“Everyone who has heard of nuclear energy knows at least something about it. However, similar to much we come into contact with, what people know is never the whole truth. And what people believe is rarely based on everything involved. It is interesting to note how people get their information and what they choose to believe. How different would all of the above trends be if advocates or dissenters of the technology took more time to educate us at the individual level? How different would they be if no one had heard of nuclear energy from the media? Without a doubt, people’s opinions would be much different.”

-Much different indeed!

“…public opinion is typically based on what people have experienced through their limited connection with the limited media (for the most part). Even though so much happens in the other realms, it is important to not only note how it is transferred to the people, but how the news and technologies of nuclear energy can be transmitted to the population without a filter, or a minimal one.”

-Hence, CLUES FORUM!