Don’t mention nuclear.
A Small Modular Reactor – an SMR. That sounds better.
In reality, however, the words ‘nuclear reactor’ should be highlighted in all information about possible SMR sites in any region. It’s a good move by the people who want to build one, and it will end up being better for the people who need to know more about them.
As a private company moves ahead with its plans for a reactor site in the Municipal District of Bonnyville, the public needs to be properly informed, properly educated and most importantly, properly understood.
Of course there are concerns when a nuclear reactor site is suggested for a region – even if it’s packaged as a small reactor, or a modular reactor. It might actually generate more concerns, in fact, when SMR, SMR, SMR, SMR is used over and over to describe the project, instead of facing the larger "nuclear" issue head on.
Even when a leading expert in the field of Energy Sciences tells Lakeland This Week that nuclear energy “… is the safest form of energy,” there are still questions. There has to be.
When that same expert says events like the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant explosion in 1986 – an explosion that caused at least 30 deaths and three decades of radioactive contamination in northern Ukraine, Belarus and Russia – were “not as bad as you think,” well, the questions should continue.
Is the expert simply stating the facts? Is the expert minimizing what ‘could’ happen? Perhaps. It depends on what you think of when you think of nuclear energy. Some see mushroom clouds and post-apocalyptic landscapes like those portrayed in movies, while others see the advantages of the cleanest energy by quantity on the planet and applications in the medical industry, space exploration, and agriculture.
Is the public entitled to be wary of any nuclear activities in their community – and to raise those concerns not just because of isolated disasters like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and the 2011 meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors? Absolutely.
Even if the likelihood of a nuclear incident is statistically a rare event, the perception of nuclear energy continues to overshadow that reality for many in the public. And it will continue to do so as long as experts continue to hype the safety of an SMR and ignore the fallout caused by the public’s perception of nuclear reactors.
R.M.
