Welch B L
Int J Health Serv. 1980;10(1):5-36. doi: 10.2190/NN0J-3X9Q-167L-UR7G.
For a quarter of a century the Federal Government and the nuclear industry have deliberately deceived the American public about the risks of nuclear power. Facts have been systematically withheld, distorted, and obscured, and calculations have been deliberately biased in order to present nuclear power in an unrealistically favorable light. Most persistent and flagrant have been: (a) attempts to "normalize" public perception of nuclear accident casualties with those of more familiar accidents by emphasizing only acute fatalities and ignoring or downplaying the major effects of nuclear accidents, namely, health impairment and death years delayed; and (b) the cloaking of the objectively undocumentable faith of the atomic energy establishment that a nuclear accident is extremely unlikely in a smokescreen of invalid, pseudoquantitative statistical probabilities in order to convince the public that the chance of an accident is negligible. Prime examples of these abuses are found in the Rasmussen report on nuclear reactor safety and in its representation to the public. The deceptive practices used in promoting nuclear power have seriously shaken public faith in government, technology, and science. The scientific community has a special responsibility to minimize such future political abuses of science. For those who were responsible for the deliberate breeches of public trust which resulted in this loss of faith, mere professional disdain will not suffice. They should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
在四分之一世纪的时间里，联邦政府和核工业一直在蓄意欺骗美国公众关于核电的风险。事实被系统性地隐瞒、歪曲和掩盖，计算结果也被蓄意偏向，以便以一种不切实际的有利方式呈现核电。最为持久和公然的行为包括：(a) 通过只强调急性死亡人数，而忽视或淡化核事故的主要影响，即健康损害和多年后延迟出现的死亡，试图将公众对核事故伤亡的认知与更常见事故的伤亡认知 “正常化”；(b) 在无效的、伪定量统计概率的烟幕下，掩盖原子能机构客观上无法证实的信念，即核事故极不可能发生，以说服公众事故发生的可能性微乎其微。这些不当行为的主要例子可见于拉斯穆森关于核反应堆安全的报告及其向公众的表述。在推广核电过程中使用的欺骗性做法严重动摇了公众对政府、技术和科学的信任。科学界负有特殊责任，要尽量减少未来此类对科学的政治滥用行为。对于那些蓄意违背公众信任从而导致这种信任丧失的人，仅仅给予职业上的蔑视是不够的。他们应该受到法律最严厉的制裁。
