Objectives

We propose the following methods to achieve our Mission aims:

• Publicise widely through the media and all available channels the best estimates of the energy gap which faces us in 2020. If no action is taken now, it will be far larger by 2050.
• Plan and execute an educational programme as soon as possible to convince the general public of all ages that nuclear power is clean, environmentally friendly and immediately convertible into energy for the National Grid.
• Demonstrate the remarkable safety record of the nuclear industry by an educational programme.
• Demonstrate the enormous contribution which nuclear energy can make to sustainable and efficient energy production without adding to carbon dioxide, and hence making a major contribution to combating global warming.
  Demonstrate the validity of current technology for dealing with nuclear power waste products, several of which are now well established. A good example of this is the massive programme now being undertaken at Sellafield (BNFL), so-called ‘vitrification’. The major safeguard against accidents is good discipline and training in following written safety instructions for all staff operating nuclear reactors. In the UK it is achieved through the rigorous standards demanded by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, the Environment Agency and by the international standards overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

• Steps should be taken to educate the general public, and their children, to accept a certain amount of technical and scientific language as a necessary part of modern life. They already do this in the computer field; what is needed is a simple explanation of the fission process during which huge amopunts of heat are controllably released. - heat which can then be used to generate electrical power. Get this concept over to children and they will cease to find it frightening.

The Joan Pye Project will be happy to give talks in more detail, on a suitable level for the general public, to any interested group.

NB: The first recipients of assistance from the Joan Pye Project fund are Dr. David Hamilton of the Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge, and Dr. Rick Short of the Immobilisation Unit, the University of Sheffield. Both attended the World Nuclear University’s Summer School in Idaho Falls, USA during 2005.