Taking the myths out of the debate on nuclear energy

News media coverage and blog posts take different paths towards the same destination

At the American Nuclear Society winter meeting taking place in Washington, DC, this  week, two sessions highlighted efforts to remove the veil of confusion on three critical issues affecting the public debate on nuclear energy. 

These issues are that development of civilian nuclear energy leads to proliferation of nuclear weapons, that management of spent nuclear fuel has no solution, and that the industry does not need loan guarantees for new reactors because they are subsidies in disguise.

The first session was a panel of top flight journalists who cover energy issues.  Organized by Mimi Limbach of Potomac Communications, it included reporter George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, Matthew Wald, New York Times, Angie Pointer, Dow Jones News Wires, and Jim van Nostrand, McClatchy News.  The audience had a typical ANS profile of nuclear engineers, utility executives, and industry consultants.

The second session was a meeting of 45 people involved or interested in new social media including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and similar types of online tools and services.  In addition to your faithful reporter, the audience included Rod Adams from Atomic Insights, John Wheeler from ThisWeekinNuclear, Dave Bradish from NEI Nuclear blog, William Tucker, author of the new book Terrestrial Energy, Ed Kee, a consultant who moderates the leading nuclear energy group on Linkedin, Nancy Roth, managing editor of Fuel Cycle Week and many others.

Read the full text of this report direct from the ANS winter meeting exclusively on the Energy Collective.

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