Thread by @burgersb

So, I binge-watched @HBO's #Chernobyl this weekend, and I have a few thoughts about nuclear (surprise!).

First off, I strongly recommend watching it. It is thrilling and terrifying, well acted and shot, and overall an excellent miniseries.

Short thread!

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Watching the horrific nature of the accident and its aftermath, it doesn't take much imagination to see why people who lived through the event still have an innate fear of nuclear power.

Of course the show is dramatized, but its easy to appreciate the fear avg citizens felt

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Thousands of people died, hundreds of thousands displaced, and millions more spent weeks to months in fear of the possible impacts of Chernobyl.

Further, scary tail risks like nuclear play into exaggerated expectation cognitive biases.

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Of course, experts know that modern reactors are safer (and some failsafe), and even incorporating the horrible fallout from Chernobyl, nuclear is WAY better than fossils from a safety (and, of course, emissions) perspective.

bit.ly/DeathPerTWh

bit.ly/SafeVCO2

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Its the responsibility of experts and industry to acknoweldge people's fears and find effective ways of communicating to assuage these fears. We can't rely on avg people to inform themselves of the risks on a complex topic like nuclear power. The industry needs to own this!

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There are a handful of voices advocating for the nuclear industry to reinvent itself - from an image and technological perspective. This is impertive. Blaming people for their ignorance or exaggeration of fears and focusing on the same old messaging simply won't work.

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cc @JesseJenkins @J_Lovering @SuzyHobbsBaker @ThirdWayEnergy @forachelP