Continue With Failed Treatments or Pursue the Cure?
Charles Pennington is retired after 50 years in the nuclear energy enterprise. He holds six patents in nuclear technology, and has authored more than 50 publications about nuclear technology and ionizing radiation. Jeffry Siegel is president and CEO of Nuclear Physics Enterprises, an international radiological physics consulting firm. He holds a Ph.D. in medical physics, has held both academic and hospital appointments, and has authored more than 360 publications.
Nuclear energy produces reliable electricity using a very compact, centralized design, with low fuel cost and throughput at a competitive price, stunningly low pollution, and demonstrated safety superiority compared to other technologies. Yet, it has remained competitively disadvantaged for decades, despite recent but now-failed hopes of a nuclear renaissance.
Many supporters of nuclear technology have tried to correct significant challenges on assorted issues from the public, the media, and the scientific, regulatory and political sectors.
But these efforts failed, owing to significant lack of understanding by scientists, educators, and regulators about the real problem. That is, they could not acknowledge the true illness and pursue the cure. The nuclear industry understood the problem, but lacked the science to pursue the cure.
This discussion focuses on what nuclear energy's critical illness is, how the industry has treated that illness, the cure for that illness, and one way to achieve a new political and regulatory environment that can save the patient. A partnership of the nuclear and medical communities is vital for assuring that desired outcome.