There's an entertaining "special report" in the Forbes India magazine that went online today (from December 29) asking the entirely pertinent question…
Will The Nuclear Power Industry Regain Public Trust?
The article was written by John B. Ritch III, Director General of the World Nuclear Association, an international pro-nuclear organization lobbying for the industry and representing corporations from all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle from mining to enrichment and fuel fabrication, plant construction, transport of nuclear materials, waste disposal and electrical generation. According to the WNA website, their membership is collectively responsible for 95% of the world's total nuclear power production outside the U.S. and the vast majority of uranium mining, conversion and enrichment worldwide.
Hardly to be considered an unbiased source.
In this article intended for the upper echelon of India's social/economic and political elites, Ritch bemoans recent increases in anti-nuclear public demonstrations and activity. A perennial problem in those pesky "democracies" around the world. Thus he exhorts Indian "nuclear professionals" to explain things to the public by way of spreading even more 'influence' to politicians and journalists. Completely ignoring the absurd idiocy of the whole nuclear waste issue (garbage deadly for 10-100 thousand years in exchange for some toaster-friendly 'trons now), Ritch boldly claims that nuclear technology is "immensely friendly to human health and the planetary environment."
Not to worry, Ritch extolls "India's leaders." Very few countries have anti-nuclear activists succeed, he says, so long as you ignore Germany. Or, later in the article, the U.S. and Austria. Conveniently dismissing the high likelihood that anti-nuclear public efforts will succeed in preventing any of those newly ordered plants in this country from ever hosting any actual nuclear material on-site. Sure, simple economics plays a larger role given that not a single nuke in this country has ever come on-line at cost or on time. Not to mention public resistance to the constant rate increases demanded by nuclear-dependent utilities to cover outrageous construction, maintenance and operational costs not already covered by the public via taxpayer subsidies and loan guarantees. Fact is, this industry is entirely non-competitive on a level field, so it has never had to compete with other energy sources on a level field.
And, just to underscore the kind of lies Ritch believes it's incumbent upon pro-nuclear propagandists to endlessly recycle, he insists the Japanese government has been entirely on the up-and-up about Fukushima, something even the Japanese government has repeatedly admitted is bullshit - they've lied and lied and lied again. Are STILL lying. Will continue to lie. The whole world knows this, it's amply documented. Doesn't matter, says Ritch. Lie anyway, and do it with a straight face - the moronic masses will buy it because 'we' are so much better and smarter than they are…
One misperception that needs to be cured is that governments can’t be trusted to tell the truth about nuclear power. There have been a lot of loose allegations about the Japanese government being too cosy with the industry and then lying during the Fukushima accident. I don’t accept this. I believe that, by and large, the Japanese government did its best to keep the public informed about Fukushima, and there is still reason to believe that there will not be a single radiation fatality, or even a case of radiation sickness, resulting from Fukushima. The government erred on the side of radiation safety, even at the expense of extensive harm to the continuity of lives and communities. Such a policy has a large unquantified cost by creating a worldwide perception that something quite horrible has happened even though the health of no individual has been harmed.
Nothing bad happened at Fukushima. See how easy that is? They can't pin this rap on me, Rococo… meaning they've successfully made it legal precedent in all pertinent jurisdictions that no individual's ill health or death can ever be 'proven' to have been caused by nuclear operations or accidents. Ever. Despite the fact that our own government admitted at long last after Bill Clinton de-classified pertinent records during his administration that yes, they deliberately irradiated lots and lots of innocent soldiers and civilians back in the day just to see how many of them would die. And many of them did just that.
Go for it, Nuclear-Industrial-Mafioso-Political complex [NIMP's]. Hardly anybody's buying it these days, and given Fukushima they're entirely unlikely ever to buy into your bullshit propaganda ever again. Game over. You lost, you're just not admitting it to yourselves yet. So we don't mind if you waste a lot of your ill-gotten gains raging against the dying of the light… er, mushroom clouds. They're desperate to salvage the developing world as the only promising market they've got left for their poison power. So Ritch handily dumps the "burden" of saving this multinational cash cow and suppressing public objections on poor ol' India…
...this burden of perception now falls on India, requiring that India’s government experts and its emerging nuclear industry must undertake a serious strategic effort to see that the relevant issues are fully and publicly ventilated. There have been cases in other countries, notably Austria and the US, where near-complete reactors have been halted by public opinion. These episodes are strange footnotes in the history of nuclear power and public perception. There’s no magical cure — India’s nuclear professionals have educational work to do to see that India doesn’t join this list.
Gotta love that "publicly ventilated" turn of phrase. Given the mob-connected history and notable death toll among whistleblowers and vocal anti-nukes, this is not a humorous double entendre. What is funny is that Ritch never even mentions the fact that India has never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Today, as we are assaulted with yet another barrage of propagandist saber-rattling presaging yet another filthy big war in the Middle East - this time entirely premised on nuclear issues - it might be pertinent to note that Iran actually did sign and ratify the nonproliferation treaty.
For whatever that's worth, which obviously isn't much these days.