bjbj Leonardo and Albert Discuss Nuclear Power
The two characters are Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo)
and Albert Einstein (Albert), but the dialogue
is set in the modern day. Leonardo: Well,
Albert, it's a fine technology this nuclear
fission. Albert: The ingenuity of the human
mind can be quite incredible, Leonardo. But
the stupidity of the human being can be even
more incredible, ya? Leonardo: What makes
you say that, Albert, old fellow? Albert:
Oh Leonardo! You have not heard of the nuclear
disaster at Chernobyl? Or the meltdown at
Three Mile Island in the U.S.? Or the fire
at Windscale in England? Or come to mention
it, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
by the United States? Leonardo: Well, OK,
Albert. Humans will always make mistakes.
But we are intelligent enough to prevent such
things happening again, don't you think? Albert:
Leo, I wish I had your faith in humanity!
The nuclear industry doesn't exactly have
such a great track record when it comes to
learning from its mistakes. Leonardo: Well,
the safety record of nuclear power has been
pretty good since Chernobyl, hasn't it? Albert:
OK, we haven't had any more reactor meltdowns
to date, but there have been some pretty scary
near misses Leonardo: Such as? Albert: In
the past ten years there have been near disasters
in Sweden, the Netherlands and Japan. Then
there is the problem of cancers, leukaemias
and birth defects from routine radioactive
discharges into the environment from nuclear
power plants and from uranium mining. Then
there's the waste problem Leonardo: Oh yes,
the waste! But underground burial will solve
that problem, right? Albert: I wouldn't be
so sure about that, Leo! Even after sixty
years the best scientific minds have not been
able to show a way of preventing the waste
from leaking radioactivity, and it will still
be deadly many thousands of years from now.
Leonardo: Well, in that case I suppose it
would be pretty irresponsible to build any
new nuclear reactors before we know what to
do with the waste. We can't just leave it
for our children and grandchildren to clear
up our mess. Albert: Right! And on top of
that, nuclear power is a way for countries
to develop materials for nuclear weapons.
By spreading nuclear power technology around
the world, we increase the risk of nuclear
weapons proliferation and nuclear war. The
war after that will be fought with sticks
and stones. Leonardo: Ha ha ha! And we'll
be rubbing sticks together to keep warm. In
spite of the risks, though, we surely need
nuclear power to keep the lights on, and to
prevent climate change, don't we? Albert:
Actually, new nuclear reactors take too long
to build to make much of a difference in terms
of maintaining energy supplies or cutting
greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy
technologies can be up and running much more
quickly with very low carbon emissions and
no nuclear waste. Leonardo: Perhaps you re
right, Albert. Maybe we should be putting
our human ingenuity to use developing renewable
technologies to their full potential instead
of pouring billions into nuclear. Albert:
Absolutely, Leo. And if we really want to
prevent catastrophic climate change, perhaps
we'd better think about cutting down on our
meat consumption, and flying and driving less.
Leonardo: Well, I m off on my bike then to
get a pizza Margherita! Albert: Ha ha! See
you later, Leo. And give Lisa my regards.
Leonardo: Thanks, Albert. And you'll have
to explain that relativity business to me
again sometime. E equals M C squared and all
that. Albert: Oh Leo! Not again! ---- THE
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place Well, Albert, it's a fine technology
this nuclear Normal Microsoft Word 10.0 Well,
Albert, it's a fine technology this nuclear
Title Microsoft Word Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8
