A Step in the Right Direction

For those who don't know this, the motivating reason behind the formation of this blog is my communicating science course at the Colorado School of Mines.  The class is aimed at bettering the communication ties between the sciences, government, and the public on scientific issues.  Therefore, I want to give you a little idea on where I want to take this blog in response to what I have learned so far from the class.

First of all, being a student it is easy to subscribe to what is know as the deficit model.  This just means that it is easy to think that all we need to do to fix the problem (in this case, the nuclear power debate) is to educate the general public about the issue.  It assumes that once a person is cognizant of the facts, they will follow the idea being presented without further conflict.  This thus just involves the "lay person" (member of the general public which is not an expert on the scientific issue) being fed information and expected to accept it without hesitation.  I say that it is easy to subscribe to this as a student because this is how we live our lives.

This has been the approach of the nuclear power industry throughout the 1970s and 1980s until the conversation just died.  Obviously, this is not the approach to successfully get the point across about nuclear power.  In today's media filled world, it is not a linear relationship between what the scientists say about nuclear power and how it is related to the public.  This means several things.  First, it is not just a one way message anymore, which makes the deficit model hard to work under.  With modern media abilities, the public is able to talk back to the scientists and tell them what they think.  So what now has to happen is that both sides have to both listen and be heard.  This leads to a dialog, which is the point of modern day science communication.  This is what the nuclear power industry needs to have in order to change its public opinion. 

A dialog is what I want my blog to be.  I will do my best to present the controversial issues that face nuclear power and I will present the facts behind the arguments without trying to fall back into my old habits of lecturing on nuclear power (as my first posts have been).  On the other hand, I need to know what concerns you have and what questions you want answered.  I can't guarantee that I can answer them, but I will do my best.  I also want you to challenge what I know and believe.  This is how advancements are made in the scientific process:  challenge and creativity.

The second goal of my blog will be to re-frame the nuclear issue.  By this, I mean that people see nuclear power as dangerous, a result of both the highly covered Three Mile Island and Chernobyl incidents.  This is the frame that the pronuclear advocates had to fight with during the 1970s and 1980s.  Today, I believe this track record has been reversed and people need to not see nuclear power as a potential disaster, but as a potential solution.  Thus, I will work to frame the first of my posts by presenting the facts as they relate to the controversies, but then I will progress to present nuclear power as a solution, as I believe it should be seen.

Here is to the beginning of an educational journey which will hopefully bring to light the true issues of nuclear power!