The
"Power" of the Media
Last weekend, a friend of mine told me about the latest
nuclear power documentary aired on the Public Broadcasting System.
The network’s investigation apparently covered the
history of the Three-Mile Island accident that released gamma radiation into
the surrounding Pennsylvania environs in March of 1979.
The fear factor generated by the special apparently took the
TV audience to borderline critical mass.
PBS claimed the situation was actually more critical at the
nuclear station than had been previously reported. The emotional,
gut-grabbing approach taken by the reporters left out a few salient facts
that nuclear critics have chosen to ignore.
When stacked up against coal-burning power plants, one sees
how truly "low-risk" nuclear generating stations are. Not only do
the fossil fuel burners help pollute the atmosphere and contribute to global
warming, an estimated 190 miners per year die in coal mine accidents.
By comparison, nuclear power is one of the most
environmentally friendly forms of power generation. There are no greenhouse
emissions. And the newest generation of nuclear plants using
"pebble-bed reactor" technology is far safer than any preceding
hi-tech power generating system. The new reactors are designed so that they
cannot melt down.
Nuclear energy is also one of the most affordable forms of
power known to man.
To its credit, the PBS website did show some balance by
featuring the text of a 1996 judicial decision denying health claims to
plaintiffs who could not prove a direct link between the limited release of
radiation and a number of cancer cases that arose in years following the
incident.
Another document found at the site raised some important
questions. Why is it that a civilized nation like France has 56 nuclear
stations presently generating more than 70 percent of the country’s total
electric output? Yet the United States produces only 20 percent of its power
through nuclear sources?
The answer, to a large degree, is the power…of the media.
TV documentaries and movies that cast nuclear power in a negative light in
the U.S. do not have the same counterbalance of opinion that exists in
France.
Following the 1973 oil crisis that sent fuel costs
skyrocketing all over the world, the French turned to the nuclear solution
in a big way. This was a land that had no other option, so the people came
to rely on the power of the atom. More than six million French citizens have
toured nuclear plants. They have, to a large part, been made aware not only
of the risks but also of the advantages of nuclear power. A fair and
balanced European media have made this possible.
With our power supply so uncertain in this country, we may,
at least this once, actually be able to take a lesson from the French.