Nuclear Thoughts

Been watching, out the corner of my eye, a bit of the drama surrounding the smoking Japanese nuclear reactors. Aside from hoping for a safe resolution, I’m not quite sure what to make about the big picture and how it’s being framed to us.

Unfortunately, the issue of nuclear energy is highly politicized. Much like the whole global cooling, er, global warming, er, climate change debate. The widespread politicization of nuclear energy dates back to the late 70s, with the coinciding of the movie The China Syndrome with the Three Mile Island crisis. I was a youngling at that time and only remember vague and scary images from the time period.

There was a commercial for The China Syndrome that truly freaked Little Me out. While an ominous narrator speaks in hushed tones of what occurs during a nuclear meltdown, the camera slowly creeps forward focusing upon something resembling a bubbling cauldron. Also, both my parents and my grandparents subscribed to Time magazine, and I remember reading (or skimming) a lot of the coverage about Three Mile Island. Very confusing to me, particularly since I couldn’t reconcile the dangers described with, say, such optimistic can-do physics and technology I found in my awesome physics book which I was madly in love with at the time.

I must confess this whole nuclear energy / nuclear reactor thing has me on the fence. I do understand the physics and engineering of it. I do realize that under most circumstances, like 99.999 percent of the time or something close, it is extremely safe, considering the technological developments in the 25 to 30 years since Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Yet there is something very frightening about nuclear reactors and nuclear energy when things go wrong. I recall reading a book about a decade ago that chronicled every single nuclear accident and fatality since the days of the Manhattan Project. That book is absolutely terrifying.

Perhaps I am just victim to far-Right propaganda (“nuclear energy is the safest cleanest bestest energy ever devised by man!”) and to far-Left propaganda (“nuclear energy is the greatest potential environmental and human catastrophe ever wielded by corrupt corporations!”). Perhaps we all are. A nuclear reactor in crisis is the Media’s second-most-slobbering-juicy-tastic story (first is any national Republican figure accused of a moral indiscretion). What I think we need, and man do I really detest this expression, is some moderation. We need clear heads and clearer facts. Because, as in so many hot-topics on the home pages of news sites today, the truth lies somewhere near the equidistant middle.

(Though probably more towards the Right side than the Left.)