It is difficult to organize pronuclear rallies because happy, prosperous, employed people can rarely be bothered to get out on the street, shout and shake signs. However, Meredith Angwin and Howard Shaffer have done a pretty fair job of organizing some interesting pronuclear rallies in Vermont, but they have generally received just local coverage.
It never stops surprising me how much attention the media pays to gatherings of people who oppose nuclear energy. Even when the protesters amount to a handful of people in a teeming city, the media takes their pictures, records their voices and publishes their fears.
It’s as I’ve always believed. Maybe up to 70% of nuclear’s public receptiveness problems is based on a nuclear-hostile media that blatantly exaggerates relatively minor incidents, accentuates on speculation and nightmares and doesn’t ever report anything positive with anything nuclear (give cancer treatment a pass out of self-interest)..
James Greenidge
Queens NY
If the pronuclear movement wants media attention we have to get spokespeople that will create a draw themselves, with the message being secondary (at least at first).
What we need is some sexy S.F. babe to take up the mantel and bring a bit of star-power to the field.
Maybe Lady Gaga could do a song about nuclear power?
Rod. Thank you for the link and the good words!
Can someone more knowledgeable than me comment on this story:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ieer-french-style-nuclear-reprocessing-will-not-solve-us-nuclear-waste-problems-90233522.html
http://tinyurl.com/chnuybg
Who are the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research ? Who funds them?
@ Don:
I have only the knowledge of an interested bystander without technical education, but something stares me in the face: if reprocessing has all these drawbacks stated by the IEER, why has France been doing it for decades?
The proliferation risk argument seems spurious: the US already has nuclear weapons, how will reprocessing there result in more countries with nuclear weapons?
I have the strong impression there are several other false arguments and straw men in the IEER story, and I hope Rod or one of the regular commenters will fill us in.
Aslo, the name of Makhijani is a red flag to me.
By the way, I didn’t find a link to the IEER report, and have only read the PRnewswire release.
Hm, strange story from IEER. IMHO, they’re putting a spectacular slant on a variety of issues and half-truths. Begging to be picked apart and hung up to dry on the town square I say!