How to talk about nuclear

The best way to talk about nuclear is . . . not to talk about nuclear—at least at first. When most academics discuss something like nuclear, they love to use lots of data and figures, which I understand and love myself. It’s great to have at your fingertips the latest data from the United Nations showing how nuclear power is safer than all other energy sources—even wind—from any standpoint: human health, land and marine ecotoxicity, aquatic impact and eutrophication, land use and acidification, climate change, and even radiation effects.

You may also find it satisfying to show off Lazard’s latest levelized cost of energy report (version 17.0), which includes values for load-following or balancing that basically double the cost of wind and solar, leaving nuclear and gas almost unchanged.

But the non-technologists don’t necessarily like loads of data.

Instead, most of us have heard that the best way to communicate a difficult or controversial subject is to establish an emotional connection with the audience.

For me, that makes the go-to topics issues like global energy poverty (who’s against eradicating global poverty?), climate change, economics, and death. Particularly death. Death in relation to on-site safety operations, in relation to environmental impacts, in relation to various energy sources, in relation to overall citizen mortality from all activities.

In effect, for my money, telling people what will probably kill them is the most interesting thing they can hear. And then showing how nuclear is at the very bottom, even below eating (since 5,000 people die each year from food poisoning versus no one from nuclear power—see Tables 1 and 2), will drive home the point better than anything I can imagine.

But now we’re talking stats again and verging into glazed-over-eyes territory for almost anyone. So, turn your stats into a Q&A—a game. First ask your audience to rank activities from smoking to automobile driving to using nuclear power from most dangerous to least dangerous. This involves them in the thinking process and makes the results personal. In fact, it is best to have several points during the talk when you ask questions to which everyone can shout out answers. And ask them to shout out the answers—“Come on, shout out! I listened to Pink Floyd at max volume too often in the ‘70s, so you really have to shout!” It gets them smiling and engaged.

And once they’re engaged, then hit them with the stats.

Pepper the whole talk with scenes like that. If it is not fun and occasionally startling, the audience won’t go away with anything useful. And be enthusiastic and smiling yourself. I’ve been told by members of the audience repeatedly that my exuberance is what they noticed the most and why they really listened to what I had to say.

Good luck with your efforts to spread the good word. To help, I’ve provided a number of links so you have raw data to embed in your anecdotes—see the list below.

Talking Points

Some key bits of data are useful to have on hand to address specific questions—the same ones that come up over and over again. Here are some links to have on deck, some of which are to my own pieces. Also, if you want my slides on any subject, just e-mail me at jim@ufaventures.com.