Nuclear power and human reaction to risks

Yesterday, I saw a documentary "Gentilly or not to be" about the closure or refurbishing of a nuclear power plant in Quebec. I was deeply affected. Was the increase in the risk of cancer in children being deliberately ignored? I spent a couple of hours searching and reading various articles, especially related to the German study.

I then went for a walk and while reflecting on it, started to wonder about my fear of flying. Even today, as the plane takes off or lands, my stomach tightens, my heartbeat increases. I am unreasonably stressed. I think it is related to the minimal survival chances should there be an accident. The true risk is the probability of not surviving and there is an accident! Our emotions seem to ignore the second factor!

I started to look at some numbers to, at least, get a non-emotive perspective.

• Mortality rate for children under 5 per 1000 live births  (2012)
  Canada 6, India 56
• Reasons for these deaths:
  According to UNICEF,^[6] most child deaths (and 70% in developing countries)^[7] result from one or more of the following five causes:

acute respiratory infections
diarrhea
measles
malaria
malnutrition

• Childhood Cancer

The most common cancers in children are (childhood) leukemia (34%), brain tumors (23%), and lymphomas (12%).^[11] In 2005, 4.1 of every 100,000 young people under 20 years of age in the U.S. were diagnosed with leukemia, and 0.8 per 100,000 died from it.^[5]

The issue is not just cancer. It is overall health. I think I will still choose to stay close to a nuclear power plant than downstream from a dam or near a thermal power plant.

Elections, News Channels and Allergies

John Oliver's satire on Indian elections is remarkably funny, especially his description of our commercial news channels.

I appear to have developed an allergy to a number of people caused by overexposure even though I hit these channels only while channel surfing. I begin to feel physically sick if I pause on one of our commercial news channels for any length of time.

And I feel tempted to blame Rajya Sabha TV and Lok Sabha TV because if they did not interrupt their shows with advertisements, I would not be channel surfing. Why do they have the interruptions when the interruptions are announcements for other shows and public interest messages is beyond me. Why can't they follow the continental Europeans if they are looking for role models :(

While DD News channel is rather boring as it wants to play it very safe, the discussions on RS TV  & LS TV are often enlightening aside from being calm. This, sadly, is not the case if the guests include representatives of political parties. The participants on their shows are more varied as well, only a few guests are repeated occasionally.

One tragedy is that both these channels are trying to absorb the gimmicks of the commercial channels, like multiple windows, distracting graphics and more guests than appropriate. The worst shows are when there are four guests and the silent guests are staring into space waiting for their chance. The guest speaking at times does not get a chance to complete his thought because the other guests need to be accommodated. And some hosts insist on have their own say and dominate the discussion time with elaborate questions.