One of the groups I’ve locked horns with in the past few years is “The Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone” who run the website www.mothballmillstone.com. I personally am pro-nuclear energy, but I will be the first to admit that it’s not without problems. Issues of proliferation and waste management are still problems and I can respect the opinion of those who are opposed to nuclear energy. However what I cannot respect is the use of bad science and unsubstantiated claims, factually inaccurate information and scare tactics to defend such a position.

In the case of these people, there’s more than a little junk science. The site is more than sensational.. it’s just plain crazy. And the woman who runs it is quite the nut herself. She’s a disbarred lawyer who has caused some rather interesting problems in the court system, including suing over sexual harassment by a dog:

1997 — In September, Barbara Monsky filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in Danbury, Conn., against local Superior Court Judge Howard J. Moraghan for permitting his dog to roam the courthouse, especially since Moraghan should know that the dog habitually sticks his snout under women’s skirts and allegedly did so to Monsky. Monsky’s attorney, Nancy Burton, said the dog had sniffed her, also. Burton analogized to the traditional “one free bite” rule for determining whether a dog is legally “vicious,” arguing that Moraghan long ago knew that the dog had had his one free sniff. Source: News of The Weird

But the craziness of the person in charge not withstanding, there accusations of the site are, on closer inspection not entirely supported by the evidence. For example, they have claimed the plant is leaking radioactive waste and harming the community, despite none being detected. They’ve even graciously donated the following sign to the town, asking that it be posted on the beaches to scare those who would dare go swimming anywhere near the plant:

Click to take a closer look (annotated). You may get a laugh

It lists some rather scary stuff which they allege is being put out by the plant. It also lists some rather ridiculous things. Some are toxic (such as cyanide), some are non-toxic (such as nitrogen) and some are vital to life (such as iron). Others are hazardous but only under high concentrations. For example, hydrogen peroxide, which in low concentrations is used to whiten teeth and in high concentrations will eat through your flesh, or ammonia, which is dangerous at high levels, but has a pungent oder you’d notice at much lower levels.

I hope the more sane anti-nuke people and the pro-nuke people can find some common ground on this one: Whatever side you’re on, I think we can agree this is just ridiculous.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Conspiracy Theories, Depleted Cranium, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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