( By Logan Dernoshek ) [Approx. Read Time: 1 minute]
In an article published Thursday, July 23rd in the Columbia Daily Tribune, journalist T.J Greaney described his tour of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For those of you who don’t know, Oak Ridge is the modern day Nuclear Mecca. Cutting edge research is happening there everyday. As Mr. Greaney explains it, “Basically, Oak Ridge is Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for nerds.” One major project occurring at Oak Ridge currently is finding better ways to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. The point of the plant tour was to demonstrate the cutting edge research and technology coming out of Oak Ridge. However, Mr. Greaney makes some interesting observations in his piece.
“Suddenly, instead of thinking about the energy breakthrough, we were all picturing mushroom clouds.”
“This, I’ve realized, is the curse of nuclear power. The nuclear industry has a safety record over the past 30 years that, by most accounts, has been stellar. Nuclear power is the most potent carbon-free power source on the planet in an age when everyone is worried about carbon footprints.”
“The specter of meltdowns and weapons use hangs darkly over the science.”
“But my reaction shows just how fearful many of us still are of nuclear power. We just don’t understand it. If a nuclear renaissance is ever going to occur, we’re going to have to work hard to educate ourselves, and the industry is going to have to keep setting the bar for safety higher and higher.”
Mr. Greaney is correct. If the Nuclear industry is to win the good fight, we must continue to educate the public about its benefits while consistently exceeding safety standards.
In general people are fearful of what is new, or they don’t understand. At least the reporter had the sense to acknowledge he had more to learn and was willing to make an informed opinion. That’s is why many organizations within the industry have made outreach a priority.
After being involved in ANS for a couple of years I present my two favorite stories:
I gave a lecture in a 4th grade class a couple of years ago about the importance of math. The topic strayed to nuclear power due to my major and one of the brighter students class declared that his parents told him that “nuclear energy poisons the environment.” It was actually quite rewarding setting the facts straight and hopefully providing understanding for the future.
Last spring in a recitation that I taught, a freshmen education major asked if nuclear power plants “make electricity from collecting the energy from the bombs that they explode”. Needless to say that was a fun discussion.
“consistently exceeding safety standards” at what cost? Nuclear power industry has been fortunate enough to be allowed to suck 100b US dollars of direct and indirect subsidies since 1948. We don’t want any more of this baby-sitting.
vcsid: You are mixing two things together. When referring to the safety standards, I was talking about industrial, personal and public safety. If you would like to engage in a discusion about subsidies, then I would be more than happy to do so. However, that is a different subject.