Cartoon 3
Original cartoon: https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=jel110420
Facts coming soon , meanwhile do some thinking 🙂
Cartoon 2
Source:
The original cartoon seems to be from Jan Eliot (based on signature) and it is sold on various websites such as Cartoonstock. Following a search on the web it seems that this cartoon was never challenged whatsoever.
1- No grey smoke coming from cooling towers
There is not such a thing as grey smoke/cloud coming from nuclear power plant’s cooling towers.
A nuclear power plant doesn’t ‘burn’ matter to release energy. Energy is released due to the fission (or fusion) process. Fission is when the nucleus of an atom is split while fusion is when two or more atomic nuclei are combined.
Fusion is happening 24/7 on the sun. Both fission and fusion processes release incredible amounts of energy (proportional to the size of the matter used). In a nuclear power plant the energy is transferred to water which generates steam. A turbine extracts from the steam flow energy. There is no black/gery smoke/cloud coming from this process. Steam is just a byproduct just when you boil your veggies… or when you breath when it’s very cold outside.
Either way the purpose of cooling towers is not to reject smoke.
cooling tower
A large device, in the form of a tower-shaped building, in which warm water is cooled by evaporation caused by circulating currents of air
– https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cooling_tower
“File:De Molen (windmill) and the nuclear power plant cooling tower in Doel, Belgium (DSCF3862).jpg” by Trougnouf is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Funny that the cartoon is represents all the typical nature colors except for the sky which seems to have been purposely colored in white to point out to the grey smoke/cloud ! 😀
2- Senior lady with grey hair and two kids in a cartoon
In the picture, based solely on the false fact that grey smoke/cloud is coming out of the cooling towers, it seems to be sufficient for the senior lady to imply that nuclear power is not safe nor reliable.
Not only the grey smoke/cloud is non factual but it seems to be perfectly acceptable to add a fictional character to further confirm the incorrect claims by logical fallacies:
Appeal to emotion: by having a senior lady with grey hair and two kids and creating a contrast between nature and the grey smoke/cloud coming out of the cooling towers.
Begging the question: pictured as a responsible adult (grey hair + two kids), with reading glasses and not drawn as a ‘crazy’, the conclusion of whether nuclear energy is safe or reliable is already included in the premise of her claims
The addition of a lady and her thought is like creating an ‘alternative fact’ FOR and existing ‘alternative fact’. It is like a lie confirming another lie. The cartoon is like a graphical definition of ‘belief bias’ coming from the author (and/or whoever who requested the cartoon).
3- Copyright, licensing and irony
While at some point it would be nice to write some thoughts on copyright, particularly on the copyrighting of ‘virtual’ matter and commodification of science there is something ironical about this picture:
The license agreement for this picture mentions:
[…] defamatory, libelous […] use of the image(s) is prohibited.
… but it is acceptable for the drawing to be libelous with respect to science and misrepresent facts … ?
Cartoon 1
Cartoon
Cartoon
chimney
A vertical tube or hollow column used to emit environmentally polluting gaseous and solid matter (including but not limited to by-products of burning carbon or hydrocarbon based fuels); a flue.
– https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chimney
Source:
The original cartoon can be found on Durdecifer’s blog. I tried to initiate a conversation by leaving a comment but the comment never made it !
For further information:
1&4- Chimney vs. Cooling towers
chimney
A vertical tube or hollow column used to emit environmentally polluting gaseous and solid matter (including but not limited to by-products of burning carbon or hydrocarbon based fuels); a flue.
cooling tower
A large device, in the form of a tower-shaped building, in which warm water is cooled by evaporation caused by circulating currents of air
2- Ionizing radiation hazard sign
If a radiation hazard sign is needed near a power plant then we would be needing signs all around the planet (See 3-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_symbol
3- Lethal dose
Based on the cartoon, death is associated to the doses coming from a nuclear power plant. However the annual dose near a nuclear power plant is lower than a chest x-ray. Fun game, find ‘Living near a nuclear power station’ below:
Source: https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radiation-sources-and-doses (from:Â National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements (NCRP), Report , No. 160)
In fact it is so insignificant that it isn’t even considered to be a source of radiation exposure for the average dose:
Test sdfsf