Can we spread information about nuclear energy by referring to films like Austin Powers either Return to the future or series like The Simpson? If possible. Can we disseminate information about nuclear energy while defending it from an environmentalist position? It also can. Can nuclear energy be disseminated with passion, dedication, enthusiasm and a good seasoning in the form of nice explanatory drawings?
Nuclear energy will save the world, written by Alfredo Garcia (the mythical already @NuclearOperator of Twitter) shows that all this is possible. And that, despite having such a daring title, even uncomfortable for some Greenpeace acolyte or apologist, it is also possible to put the pros and cons in front of the reader so that they can form their own opinion.
Because when it comes to nuclear energy, as in many other issues, information must prevail over indoctrination, fear and Manichean messages, those that fit comfortably on a claim sheet.
A necessary book
Let's say it from the beginning: many of us were waiting for this book. Those of us who have been closely following Alfredo's work on Twitter for a few years now knew that all those inventive and viral threads that were capable of pouring tons of pedagogy without being pedantic or making the abstruse accessible without sacrificing rigor should be collected in a book .
Some bold threads, full of data that make your head explode (like eating a banana produces a higher radioactive dose than living for a year next to a nuclear power plant)... and on top of that, elegantly snorting over trolls and haters, in the purest style of the quixotic “they bark, then we ride.”
And it has happened, the book has materialized. With the addition that the volume includes what many of us had already read in his tweets plus many other things that we did not know: a first part science and technology where information on the operation of nuclear energy is offered; a second part addressing accidents (Fukushima did not cause deaths due to radioactivity, for example, but these were the result of fear itself, collective hysteria); a third part which focuses on what we do with waste and how dangerous it is; a fourth part on the most notorious controversies (with Greenpeace showing its snout); a fifth part about the prospects; and one fifth part about the solutions.
We are, therefore, before the super-vitaminized version of what Alfredo had already told us, without ignoring the now classic illustrations of his son Álvaro, and, as icing on the cake, a brand new prologue by the particle physicist Javier Santaolalla.
As an example of what you can find throughout the text, we have read a fragment of the book in which a nice reference is made to a story by Isaac Asimov:
Popular opinion about nuclear energy is subject to the whims of current culture and the media, especially grim films. This is the same thing that happens with so many other popular opinions about how homeopathy, pesticides, GMOs or WiFi work. Opinions that are the result of the epidemiological nature of memes meshed with the Darwinian nature of genes. What in Roman Paladino we would translate as coincidence.
But ideas that come from chance are not usually the best ideas.. Whether you agree or not with nuclear energy, your ideas must be based on data, evidence, statistics, the operation of a reactor, the safety measures taken, the possible risks, the counterparts of not taking such risks... even the elementary functioning of physics itself.
Nuclear Energy Will Save the World: Debunking Myths About Nuclear Energy (Non-Fiction)
They may be truisms to experts, like Shakespeare's "gilt fine gold, paint the lily, throw perfume on a violet," but they will no doubt surprise laymen and may raise a skeptical eyebrow: Is nuclear energy more ecological? oh really?
Because, after all, when making decisions, you have to compare the risks and benefits before blindly adopting a technology or doing without it. And it must be done taking into account all the factors, and not just the most obvious ones, as the Italian chemist and scientific communicator warns. Luigi Garlaschelli in The "mad scientist": A history of research at the limits:
We want to travel quickly and safely, but we don't want highways that spoil the landscape; we want consumer goods, but not landfills or incinerators; We do not want nuclear, considered dangerous, but neither do we want swamps to produce electrical energy; We want alternative energies, but solar panels or wind energy are not accepted; we want a lot of food, but not fertilizers, antiparasitics or preservatives; We want drugs, but we do not accept animal testing. Unfortunately, there are no benefits without contraindications.
In short, and as the pioneer of Artificial Intelligence and Nobel Prize winner pointed out Herbert SimonWe all live with a limited rationality: scarce information, scarce time and imperfect hardware. Books like Alfredo García's allow us to correct at least two of these factors, perhaps even all three.
Alfredo García Fernandez He is a disseminator of nuclear science and technology, Communication Award from the Spanish Nuclear Society and an active defender of the role of nuclear energy as a tool for mitigating global warming. He is a technical telecommunications engineer, graduated in Audiovisual Communication and has the Operator and Supervisor licenses, granted by the Nuclear Safety Council and necessary to operate at the Ascó Nuclear Power Plant, in Tarragona (Spain).
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Books that inspire us: 'Nuclear energy will save the world' by Alfredo García
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
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