Winner of the Ed Lyman Award in Selection Bias, "Ph.D. in Physics" says...

When I was a dumb kid, I was very much prone to Appeal to Authority arguments, which were (and still are, apparently) hyped greatly by the media.

Being a kid, I was, um, uneducated and somewhat - not somewhat, but rather highly - gullible.

Ed Lyman, in case you don't know, is the paid antinuke from the so called "Union of Concerned Scientists," an organization you too can join without being a scientist at all. Just write a check and you, too, can be a "concerned scientist." I know, because I joined briefly a few decades ago, with no question addressed to my scientific education or exposure.

Eddie has a Ph.D in Physics from Cornell. He is, I guess, nominally a scientist.

He can tell you about all the disasters he predicts that will kill you because of nuclear power, although there haven't been very many such deaths in the last two decades he's prattled on about them, nor in the 70 year history of commercial nuclear power, but you need to know all about what Ed says could happen, although it doesn't happen, and the death toll, were a serious one to actually exist, would not compare to the death toll of not using nuclear power.

To wit:

Ed will be happy to drag out all the usual chants about so called "nuclear waste," and, um, "nuclear wars" and "nuclear accidents" but is not paying much attention to um, fossil fuel waste, expressed as both air pollution deaths, running about 19,000 per day, and climate change. He doesn't pay any attention to fossil fuel powered wars, (or wars for access to fossil fuels) many of which are now being observed. And, fossil fuel accidents? Get serious. Who can take seriously a house blowing up from a gas leak, a refinery fire next to an hydrofluoric acid tank, any refinery fire, people burned by gasoline fires.

The cost of fossil fuels, internal and (although often ignored) external costs (see above), well no, only nuclear energy is "too expensive." A flaming planet and extreme global heating is not "too expensive."

Apparently Ed has a fellow chanting buddy, and you can read all about him in the Guardian:

Here's an applicant for the Ed Lyman Award in "I have a Ph.D. in Physics" and therefore "I am an expert in nuclear energy: "

Physicist MV Ramana on the problem with nuclear power

All the usual stuff is dragged out and hung up for display:

Chernobyl, Fukushima, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

How many people died from radiation at Fukushima again?

Comparison of mortality patterns after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant radiation disaster and during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Motohiro Tsuboi et al 2022 J. Radiol. Prot. 42 031502)

In the old days, when I was young and stupid, the so called "Union of Concerned Scientists" had an actual antinuke trained nuclear engineer, David Lochbaum, who had a bachelor's degree in the subject of nuclear engineering

I told myself, since I didn't know a damned thing about, well, anything, least of all about nuclear power, that David Lochbaum is a "nuclear engineer" and he worked at nuclear power plants, so he must be right. I cured myself of this delusion by opening science papers, science books, engineering papers, and engineering texts.

Of course, there are lots and lots and lots of nuclear engineers who work at nuclear power plants who are not David Lochbaum, and who are not resigning from their jobs because of what he says.

In science "Selection Pressure" is the result of focusing on one thing at the exclusion of all others. Despite Ed Lyman, and the candidate for the "Ed Lyman Award in Selection Bias" (an award I just made up), a Ph.D in physics does not make one right, or correct, even about issues in Physics, never mind engineering.

My son is working on a materials science based Ph.D. in nuclear engineering, and he interacts with many people having a Ph.D. in his field, including, of course, his advisor, lots of post docs, other professors, people he meets and conferences, his fellow graduate students. None of these people are going to abandon their careers because of all the slogans chanted by, um, Ph.D's in Physics, Ed Lyman or the other potential awardees of my proposed award. My son, is um, not going to abandon his career because Ed Lyman has a Ph.D. in physics, I assure you.

He is committed to serving humanity.

The media makes no attempt, none, at critical thinking. Generally, the Guardian can be slightly better than most, but clearly, they are not immune from the promotion of very, very, very, very, very bad thinking.

I still contend that in general, one cannot get a degree in journalism if one has passed a college level science course with a grade of C or better.

Unbelievable.