Nuclear Energy. What We Need to Know, Now.

For the past four days I have been anxiety ridden, sleep deprived, and absolutely glued to my laptop. But that doesn’t change the fact that right now I am sitting comfortably in my warm home, with abundant food, clean water, access to electricity, and have close contact with everyone I love. There are human beings in Japan who have lost everything, including homes and loved ones, and they are fighting for their lives as I write this. It literally brings me to tears.

This situation in Japan is exceptionally complicated for me to process. I was born in Tokyo, the daughter of a nuclear engineer, and have spent the past two+ years building a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing accurate arts-integrated information in support of nuclear energy. I started the organization to help bridge the gap between the realities of nuclear science, energy needs, and public awareness of these issues.

Right now people need accurate information about nuclear energy more than ever, as panic and sensationalized media reports are overshadowing the very real consequences of the catastrophic natural disasters that occurred on Friday. Citizens of Japan are suffering in unimaginable ways, and the rest of us are focusing in on the least threatening of the circumstances facing their survival: Nuclear Energy.

I want to provide some information in hopes that we can put the situation into perspective and refocus on meeting the immediate needs of the Japanese people.

First of all, I do not intend to downplay the incredibly precarious ongoing events at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station. It is a huge issue that must be faced with great knowledge, caution and diligence. Thankfully, the Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese Government are some of the most experienced nuclear facilitators in the world, and they currently have assistance on the ground from several of the most capable American engineers as well.

The risk at Fukushima is not the lack of technical knowledge or ability at the plant, it is the complete lack of infrastructure that they have to work with as a result of the earthquake and tsunami. They are doing all that they can to keep the damage to plants and the release of radiation to a minimum until electricity and transportation routes can be reestablished. As far as I am concerned the operators and engineers at Fukushima are heroes beyond heroes.

Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 though 6 have all had significant problems ranging from cooling problems to oil fires and explosions. As dramatic and frightening as it has been to watch this unfold on the news, the reality is that even if any or all of these plants meltdown, it will still be the least significant threat that the public is currently facing. Nuclear power plants are designed to meltdown in a very specific way. If the fuel overheats and the temperature inside the reactor reached a certain temperature it will melt into the containment structure. This is what happened at Three Mile Island, and no significant harm was caused to the public, though the plant never operated again. If there is partial or total meltdown at any unit, it will happen inside the reactor, not out in the open where it is an immediate public threat.

The fact that these plants stood up to an earthquake 7 times stronger than they were designed for, and then a subsequent 30 foot tsunami is evidence that they are holding up better than any engineer could have expected. The radiation that has been released is not life threatening, and timely safety precautions like evacuations and distribution of iodine, will ultimately keep the vast majority of the public safe from exposure. At this point the power plants have been shut down for 5 days and are cooling down, so the risk of a meltdown are decreasing over time, although you won’t gather that from the main stream media coverage.

The loss of infrastructure, including the plants at Fukushima, is the most dangerous part of this situation. Access to health care, clean water, food, electricity, transportation, housing and communication abilities are all compromised at this time, which means the death toll will continue to rise. Without these needs being met, the public is at great risk. We should be making every effort to help rebuild basic infrastructure as quickly as possible though personal donations and government aid.

As contrary as it may seem, part of the infrastructure Japan will need in the coming months and years is new nuclear power. There have been major breakthroughs in the nuclear sector in the past thirty years, and the public needs to know about them. Technologies like Generation III+ Reactors, Small Modular Reactors, Thorium Reactors and Next Generation Nuclear Power are stronger, safer, carbon free alternatives to fossil fuels (I won’t get into how poorly oil and natural gas plants have held up through this situation). I can’t help but think that the warming oceans and carbon-saturated atmosphere, has amplified the severity of recent natural disasters. We need energy technology that doesn’t contribute to the ongoing weather and geological anomalies that have become common place in recent years, causing unprecedented death and destruction in places like Indonesia, China and Haiti. Walking away from nuclear energy technologies now could be a mistake of epic proportion.

So please, take another look at the events in Japan, and take a little time to learn the facts about nuclear energy. The real disasters in Japan are the earthquake and tsunami, as well as the resulting humanitarian crises, not the issues at Fukushima. Once we get past sensationalized stories and fear based reporting, we can focus our concern and attention to the people who are suffering and meeting their immediate needs.

Lastly, just in case you are reading, I am sending my love and prayers to the Katoh’s and the Yamamoto’s. You are in my thoughts constantly.

- Suzanne Hobbs, 3/15/2011

For more technical information please defer to the experts: ( www.nei.org )

Bio: Suzanne Hobbs is the Executive Director of PopAtomic Studios, a non-profit organization dedicated to using the power of visual and liberal arts to enrich the discussion on nuclear energy: ( www.popatomic.org )

Art-Based Nuclear Outreach Proves Successful

We here at PopAtomic have been formulating ways to use art to effectively reach young people with critical information about nuclear energy for some time now. I am excited to report that our first major Educational Outreach effort at Chattahoochee Technical College in Atlanta confirmed our theory that art can make learning about nuclear energy a fun and empowering experience.

As a part of their Service Learning Program for Introduction to Sociology, students watched a presentation about nuclear energy and art, then participated in making art that transformed negative imagery associated with nuclear into positive imagery. During the art making process students were encouraged to discuss the role of energy creation and consumption in the context of Sociology. Specifically we touched on how a viable clean energy source such as nuclear has come to be so misunderstood as well as ways we can change those misperceptions.

I think it is fair to say that I learned as much as the students during this program. Most had very little knowledge of nuclear energy and were grateful to be introduced to some basic facts. Essentially all of the students from the three classes I spoke to are now ready and equipped to have a meaningful discussion about energy outside of the classroom. I was amazed at how receptive and creative these students were in approaching this challenging subject.

Starting our Educational Outreach efforts in Atlanta was not coincidental. We hope to cultivate strong support of nuclear energy in Georgia as the Vogtle Electrical Generating Plant expands, especially among young people and the arts community. These efforts will be followed up by continued speaking engagements at Chattahoochee Technical College, as well as collaborative efforts with the Georgia Tech Student American Nuclear Society, leading up to an art exhibit to open in Atlanta during the 2011 Student Conference in April. And we may have just discovered a few more artists to participate in the exhibition!

To my my surprise not a single student tried to use the “I’m not creative” excuse that often comes out when you ask adults to make art. I wonder if it was because there was a sense of purpose behind the art making? Maybe this was just an exceptional group of people? Either way the art work that came out of this program is truly incredible. I will conclude with some images of student work that will really make you smile! Next up on my speaking tour: Idaho National Lab on Tuesday and University of North Carolina Asheville in September.

There’s so much amazing student work that we will have to share it over a series of posts and through our Facebook page. A special thanks to Leigh Keever for inviting us to speak to her classes, and to her wonderful students for accepting this challenge with creative and open minds.


-Suzanne Hobbs, 8/20/2010
( http://www.popatomic.org/ )

If you want to be a part of a meaningful environmental movement, learn about energy

Last week in London members of Greenpeace attempted to shut down several dozen BP stations in protest of their handling of the oil spill. Consequently, commuters couldn’t get gas and there were traffic jams and upset citizens, but I would venture to say that BP didn’t bat an eye. So, I wonder what the goal of their actions really was? If you want to send a message to a corporation, why would you choose to focus on punishing the consumer rather than going straight to the source? And what was achieved? Nothing, really.

I feel hugely disappointed that so many educated “environmentalists” can’t come up with anything better than running amuck when it comes to solutions to the energy crisis. In fact, these days, Greenpeace isn’t really for anything. They are, however, against almost everything. When was environmentalism reduced to bad behavior and whining? We are all adults here, right?

So after some serious contemplation I started to wonder how much the average person actually knows about energy. How it is produced, what resources it requires, and the long-term environmental impact of different energy sources. Then I started asking people, and as it turns out we are collectively lacking basic knowledge about our own consumption. This is especially bad when you consider that 25% of the world’s population uses 75% of the resources, and we American’s are not on the sympathy-deserving side of that equation. So, energy-we take it for granted, we use it all up and we destroy the environment. Then we complain about it and run amuck and never make any changes-really?

Another disconnect in our understanding of energy is with regards to renewable sources. These provide less than 1% of our energy in this country. This is not because they are not getting funding, subsidies and lots of public support- they get more of those things than any other energy source. Renewables don’t make that much energy, because renewables simply, by nature, don’t make that much energy. That’s right. I said it. Wind turbines only produce electricity when it’s windy and solar panels when it’s sunny. And despite the added complications of constant flux, even if they were consistent, renewables still don’t make enough energy to put a dent in our consumption.

Coal and nuclear are consistent, which is why we use them for base load power. Wind and solar are novelty energy sources. You would never use them to power, say New York City. It would be a disaster. Rolling blackouts. Not good. You can only use something that won’t stop working no matter what. Again it boils down to coal and nuclear. So coal kills 24,000 Americans annually, nuclear energy has never killed an American. That fact alone should make the decision easy, but there is more. Coal is destroying our environment and nuclear releases zero emissions.
Nuclear gets better and better the more you know about it. For instance, what used to be called “waste” is now called fuel. Reprocessing allows us to recycle nuclear fuel, reducing the amount and radioactivity of real waste, which is easily stored on site because it is super small. Nuclear materials are dense, so they don’t take up much space. In fact your entire lifetime energy waste if you only consumed nuclear energy would fit in a drinking glass. That seems much more reasonable than the tons and tons of CO2 that every America releases into the atmosphere annually.

And Three Mile Island was proof that even our oldest plants can successfully contain a meltdown. It’s good to know, but since that accident security and training at nuclear plants has increased exponentially, so there’s not much of a chance of it happening again. Not to mention that new nuclear technologies are sleek and small, with even more intrinsic safety measures.

Are you reconsidering what you thought were the “facts” about energy yet? Well, if not I would consider learning more about energy in general. If we are ever going to overcome the surmounting environmental problems we are facing we are will to have to stop running amuck and complaining, and start actively supporting smart solutions. We may not have created this problem, but it’s ours now and it’s going to require drastic measures to conserve this planet.


-Suzanne Hobbs, 7/29/2010
To learn more, visit us at: ( http://www.popatomic.org/ )