The magazine of the european research area European Commission Copenhagen, a missed chance?

Marie-Françoise Lefèvre

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IN BRIEF

 research

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eu No. 63 | APRIL 2010 

43

DIARY

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OPINION

Confessions of a communicator  

15 October 2009. Le Nouvel Observateur 

headline: “Nuclear incident – escaping pluto-

nium at Cadarache storage site”. “Enough 

to produce five nuclear bombs”, Greenpeace 

rages. The reality is far more trivial. But it 

does raise questions as to how information 

is relayed to the general public. Before any 

analysis of its effects, a nuclear incident arouses 

indignation, anxiety, even panic. And it is the 

facts themselves that stimulate our emotions 

and fix in our memories. 

What can be done? It is impossible, we 

observe, to discuss rationally with the general 

public on a subject it has not rationally taken 

on board. In other words, while it is still useful 

to continue efforts to provide well-documented 

information, this approach will reach only 

the most interested. It remains to convince the 

great mass of indifferent citizens that weighs 

heavily on the political environment. 

Cicero taught Roman orators that, to be 

heard, they must first seduce, then move and, 

finally, convince. The nuclear environment 

has never respected this order: it has wished 

first to convince, has not seduced the majority 

of the general public, and the emotion it 

has  raised has been mostly negative. But 

how indeed could nuclear energy seduce the 

general public?

We must meet this public on its home 

ground, and not seek to attract it to our own. 

Where is this public the most available? In the 

evenings, in front of the TV, watching its 

favourite soap. It is there that it needs to be 

shown nuclear activities, and the competence 

and dedication of those working in this field. 

It is there that one can gradually – and this 

will take years – rebuild confidence through 

the regular presence of characters that become 

familiar figures. But this ‘nuclear’ TV series 

needs above everything to be fun, in order 

to  attract a major audience over a period 

of years and so gradually improve the image 

of this energy. This project is beyond the 

dreaming stage: such a series is under study.