RE: Decision time!

["Ted Rockwell" <tedrock@CPCUG.ORG>]

> Please recommend some concrete action individuals can take.



Bernie:



For starters, I would write down the simplest, most basic statement you feel

should be made about the safety of nuclear reactors, or radwaste, or spent

fuel assemblies in pools or being shipped.  Not the usual, hedgey

worst-possible-case statement we hear all the time, but a statement in the

same frame as is used in other areas of life.  In particular, I think it's

useful not to focus on the guards, barriers and safety gadgetry, but on the

character of the beast itself.  Based on our experience of nearly two human

generations with several hundred reactors, where no member of the public has

been hurt by nuclear power operations.  What other large-scale operation can

make such a statement?



Check you words out with a couple of nuclear friends, to be sure they can't

easily be misunderstood.  Then use it in letters to editors, etc. and also

to leading people in the nuclear community.  My concern is that I have been

repeatedly told that we in the community should not make such statements

because "we will look as if we're not taking safety seriously" or "the

public won't buy a statement like that."  I believe our first objective

should be to get past that situation, right here in our own family.  If we

can get ourselves comfortable with such statements, then we can worry about

whether the public will accept what we say.



That sounds childishly simple, but I believe it's the first necessary step.



Ted Rockwell





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