Re: Why nuclear is a "no-win" in the USA -Reply

[Charles Willis <CAW@nrc.gov>]

A plea to Ron Amoling and others who castigate the health physics community for
not speaking out in public: Please, tell us how to succeed.

We know we are failing.  We know some of the reasons for our failures.  We know
that we have been trying, probably since the A-bombs ended WW-2.  A few of us
even manage to make our message available to the public; we applaud Ralph Lapp
and Bernie Cohen and I understand that Otto Raabe will be on public radio this
morning to discuss the plutonium on Cassini -- but it isn't sufficient.  What we need
is guidance on how to succeed.

Letters to the editor?  In the real world, this is the way it goes:  a month or so ago,
the Washington Post published letters by anti-nuc activists that criticized (a) the
radon work of Bernie Cohen and (b) the position statements of the Health Physics
Society.  Bernie responded in his own behalf and I responded as a member of the
HPS Board of Directors.  We followed the rules: our letters were brief, to the point,
free of jargon (and other "big words"), etc., but they were not published.

Public meetings?  I seem to do a lot of  these, but without the kind of success I
would like.  I come prepard to respond to the comments and to try to build raport
with the people who are there.  I know it would be better if I were younger and
prettier, but I haven't been able to work that out.  Still, it seems that principal
problem is that the people who attend these meetings are primarily interested in
saying something outrageous enough to get them on TV.  At the recent meeting
near Watts Bar, for example, calling us "war criminals" got one lady her 10
seconds on local TV.  It is interesting, but the environment is not friendly, orr
conducive to conveying information.

I continue to see the HPS science teachers' workshops as the best available
vehicle, but it will take a lot of work.

Charlie Willis
caw@nrc.giv