On January 1, 2014, I asked several nuclear communicators to join me for a discussion about highlights of 2013 and predictions for 2013. We had a lively discussion about the change in the conversation about nuclear energy stimulated by the release of Pandora’s Promise, the impact of the court decision telling the NRC to restart…
Every once in a while, I like to get a feel for who is reading Atomic Insights – or, to be more technically correct, whose browser lands on one of the pages. So far this year, the geographic plot looks pretty good. However, there are a couple of white areas and just a few days…
On December 8, 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his forward-leaning Atoms for Peace speech at a gathering of the United Nations General Assembly in Bermuda. His vision for the world has not yet been realized, but remembering some of his thoughts might inspire some thinkers to take action. There are many reasons why many decision…
This show was inspired by a post on Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Healthiness titled Why I’m Not Afraid of Fukushima. That post was written by a guest blogger named Jeremiah Scott; he is an electrical engineering student who is attending college in the Pacific Northwest with the help of the GI bill. He…
Watch more video from the CNN channel on Frequency Though I sometimes suffer from the blues, I am not crazy — I swear. Even though I am just a guy who often blogs in my PJs, I’m also pretty sure that I am not a nobody. In fact, none of us are nobodies, we are…
Entergy’s announced decision to close Vermont Yankee hit me pretty hard. It was the fifth announced closure of a large nuclear reactor in 2013. It was one more indication that the nuclear renaissance that seemed so close to becoming real in 2005 is struggling. It was also an announcement that I took a little personally,…
It is time for a career change. For the foreseeable future, I am going to write books and articles for a living. This career move has been a long time in the making. During my first interview for a nuclear-related job, Admiral Rickover asked me, “English major? Why are you an English major?” I responded…
On the evening of September 22, 2013, I gathered a group of friends who are also pronuclear communicators. We spoke for nearly 90 minutes about some of the challenges that we face in helping people to understand the enormous benefits provided by atomic energy and the vast array of good things we are giving up…
There has been a whole spate of scary stories published in the past couple of weeks about various aspects of nuclear energy. While the reason for the flood is not entirely clear, some atomic advocates — including me — believe that people who have invested their careers in working to halt nuclear energy are worried…
This post originated as a comment buried deep in a thread that already includes more than 100 comments. It clearly explains why nuclear energy professionals can become rather abrupt when engaging in conversations about energy with people opposed to nuclear energy that claim to be energy policy experts. That is especially true in cases where…
A good friend shared a link to a blog titled Taking physics to new audiences: a realisation. It is a wonderful story about a particle physicist who has a twin sister who is a professional historian. Following a conversation about nuclear energy, the physicist has avoided talking to her sister about what she does at…
Dr. Peter Sandman is one of the world’s leading experts on risk communications. He is the author of one of the most referenced texts for practitioners in the field titled Responding to Community Outrage: Strategies for Effective Risk Communications. After building a profitable consulting business that has provided the resources to send both his children…
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