Standing Up for Nuclear. WSJ Vote and ANS Nuclear Cafe

Vote! Stand Up for Nuclear Energy at the Wall Street Journal Poll

The Wall Street Journal is having a poll on: Should the World Increase Its Reliance on Nuclear Energy?  It will only take you a moment to vote "yes" and presto...you will have stood up for nuclear power in a public forum.  Do it!  Take a moment to vote in the poll.

You can also comment (there are some great pro-nuclear comments on that poll, as well as the usual anti-nuclear fear-mongering).  Another way to be pro-nuclear in public.

DO VOTE!

Standing Up for Nuclear Power at the ANS Nuclear Cafe

Yesterday, the American Nuclear Society Nuclear Cafe blog had two posts about standing up for nuclear power.  One of the posts encouraged people to vote in the WSJ poll that I have linked to above.

I wrote the second post: Pro-Nuclear Activism: Something for Everyone.  This post described different ways to stand up for nuclear power, including writing pro-nuclear comments on web posts and newspaper articles.

Since many of us are scientists and engineers, we sometimes think we have to do a research project before we can write anything.  However, even a simple opinion counts in the public discourse. Sharing a pro-nuclear opinion is also standing up for nuclear energy.

I used this comment (at left) as my example.

Judge Murtha ruled for Vermont Yankee in the federal court case.  On a Vermont web site, an anti-nuclear commentator made the usual "they are all in bed together" type comment about Murtha.  Mr. Hagan replied: "you are like a kid blaming his loss of the game on bad calls by the referee."

Hagan's comment was also an opinion.  It was easy to write and it is now out there, in public.  Pro-nuclear.

Howard Shaffer and I gave a talk on pro-nuclear activism at the Connecticut chapter of the American Nuclear Society.  The ANS blog post has links to that talk.   Another part of the talk was about using props to "make it real" when you are giving a pro-nuclear talk.

For example, Howard Shaffer bought a tritium exit sign and it was delivered through the mail.  It contains far more tritium than leaked from the famous pipe at Vermont Yankee.  You can't send hazardous materials through the U S  Mail.  At many talks, this exit sign in Howard's hands has "made it real" in a way that words and viewgraphs can hardly match.