The Fukushima Dissenter

There is a very strong consensus among the sort of people I read (reg, Tim, Neil, isegoria) that the reporting about the nuclear reactor problems at Fukushima is a typical hysterical overreaction by ignorant greens, lefty ideologues, and sensationalist media.

I threw my own rotten tomatoes at the target, when I looked at deaths from other kinds of power stations.

There is just one voice among my hundred or so blogroll subscriptions saying that in fact a major disaster has occurred that will seriously affect Tokyo.

Well, it's hard to score 100%, isn't it? So one guy happened to fall for the bullshit. Big deal.

The thing is that the one guy isn't a green, a lefty, or a journalist. He isn't as a rule overly trusting of the MSM. And he knows a good bit about nuclear reactors. I'm talking about M Simon of the blog Power and Control.

He could still be wrong. I'm not bringing the question up now to guess at whether he is or not: I don't have to do anything different either way, and we'll know in due course.

I'm interested, though, in the shape of the argument. We know we're surrounded by ignorant greens, lefty ideologues and sensationalist media. But what if, by coincidence, this time they're right?

The situation reminds me of the Anthropogenic Global Warming argument in reverse. Mainstream western scientists know that "science is under attack from a well-organized, politically well-connected and, above all, well-financed opposition", and that "The real war is between rationalism and superstition", and if a small proportion of Richard Lindzens and Freeman Dysons are mysteriously on the wrong side, well, weird stuff happens in politics.

Mr Simon is so keen on fusion that he wants to get rid of fission generation. And he doesn't like the Japanese. (I knew an old guy who was in the US Navy, and he didn't like the Japanese. Stands to reason). Yeah, that will cover it, I don't need to bother with his extremely detailed arguments.

Easy to do, easy to do... As I said, it doesn't matter this time, because we'll know one way or the other soon enough anyway. But I'm fascinated by how the story plays out.

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