TODAY. Nuclear power and the ignorance of journalists – it’s almost criminal.

I’d like to believe that it is just ignorance – the way journalists complacently regurgitate the lying propaganda vomited forth by the nuclear industry.

And to be fair – I really do think that it is the result of journalists’ ignorance, rather than a cynical “knowing which side is their bread buttered on” – (where the money is)

Why are journalists SO IGNORANT ABOUT THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY?

I think it goes back to the industry’s traditional and very effective ploy :

– “only nuclear engineers can really understand it“

This meant that any discussion or reporting would have to be enshrined in technical jargon, impenetrable to the normal person. The nuclear lobby made sure of this, although the facts and various aspects could well be discussed in normal language. Nuclear experts could have chosen to make it clearly – for example Albert Einstein did – “Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.”

This ploy has worked well over the decades, causing journalists to be wary about possibly saying something inaccurate or silly. Their safest course has indeed been to just regurgitate the industry’s handouts, including the approving comments by politicians etc (who are supported by the industry, and who themselves know little about it)

Even today, it is rare to find nuclear matters clearly explained to the “lay person”

You do find articles on the costs of nuclear, the opponents of it, – but not much on how it works, what the wastes actually are, and so on.

It was refreshing today, to find an article from France, explaining “fast breeder reactors” – reprocessing, as in Bill Gates’ much touted new Natrium reactor plan . That article was written by a journalist who has taken the trouble to do his research.

The nuclear lobby still prefers to do its media spin via articles handed out in their own obscurantist language. You don’t need to be a nuclear engineer or physicist to do your research. But it takes time and trouble and asking the hard questions.

Journalists are either too lazy or too bought to do this. Easier to regurgitate.

But with nuclear war an ever more looming possibility, it is definitely time for journalists to woke up and do their homework on the industry whose reason for existence is nuclear weapons.

March 18, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes, media

1 Comment »

We have seen Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace,” turn into “Atoms for War.” Both India and Pakistan have turned the nuclear technology we shared with both countries, into nuclear weapons. There is no permanent solution for nuclear waste that must be kept out of the environment for hundreds of thousands of years “perfectly.” Nuclear power is not economical, “cost effective,” or “cheap.” Renewable energy is growing because it is more cost effective, cheaper and faster to build and install then nuclear power. Nuclear power can not be built near population centers and away from cooling sources, rivers or oceans. It is just too dangerous, takes too long to build and is too expensive. Plus we have the natural resources and the technology now to meet our energy needs without it or fossil fuel. We don’t need natural gas as a “transition fuel” with hydraulic fracking. What we need is the political will to do so.

Comment by paulrodenlearning | March 18, 2024 | Reply