Oh Boy, pass the popcorn...
Well IMHO the reason why there are so many people opposed to Nuclear Power is because there are too few people who actually understand it. Remember that a lot of people still have Chernobyl, TMI, and the movie "The China Syndrome" on the brain. Couple that with Hollywoods gross misrepresentation of basic nuclear theory (see just about any movie that has anything to do with nuclear power, although there are exceptions) and you have a lot of people out there that react to nuclear power with pure emotional fear of the unknown. We have been tought all the perils of radioactive materials during the cold war and the horrors that radiation can cause from case studies of any of the nuclear(bomb and reactors) events of the past. On board a carrier, non-nukes are often scared to death to see canary suits even if it is a drill. I have actually seen people refuse to go into the ships store because it was over a reactor and there were Radiation Area plaques inside the store due to an observation window on the floor of the store. Our captain had to come on ship TV to explain basics to the crew in order to minimize the panic when the EOOW would announce the Rx was Critical during drills. It is completely irrational, but it is something that we have to overcome as a nation in order to push forward to new forms of energy. Enviro-hippies scream all day about solar, wind, and other "green" power, but fail to comprehend that in order to produce the same amount of power a nuke plant could you would have to destroy an exponentially larger amount of land to build those "green" power plants.
Ok who wants the soap box?
