Why, in the year 2023, would I start a blog?

Once upon a time, I had a decent following on the site formerly known as Twitter. Since Elon decided to turn it into an alt-right chat room, I left that hellhole and migrated to BlueSky. BlueSky has a few advantages over Twitter, the biggest being the lack of neo-Nazis. It does not, however, thread long strings of posts very well.

I originally hopped on Twitter at the request of my wife. My goal was to explain nuclear power to people in an easily understood way. I truly believe that most people who are scared of all things nuclear don’t understand just how safely designed civilian nuclear plants are. If I can explain how they work, I can bridge that gap.

And it worked. I had a post go viral, got to talk to reporters about nuclear power, and got to explain headlines to people who were frightened by them. I changed a few people’s opinions when it came to nuclear power. And then Twitter imploded.

I hope to use this blog in the same way I did Twitter. If you have questions, please ask. I will honestly answer them. Nuclear power is not perfect and I will never pretend it is.

I am not paid by the nuclear industry to do this. Full disclosure, I am an instructor at a nuclear power plant. But, they don’t pay me a dime for doing any of this. I do it because, after 20 years in nuclear power, I think the biggest enemy of progress is our public image. The only way to fix that is to pull back the curtain a little and show people how it works.

Why should you listen to me? I joined the Navy at 18 as a nuclear electrician’s mate and went to sea on a nuclear submarine. Since then, I have trained hundreds of operators how to run reactors and spent 2 years as a Senior Reactor Operator myself. I have over 20 years of experience in nuclear power.

I know nuclear power. I know the good, the bad, and the ugly. I know that it is safe and reliable, and it is a hell of a good way to make power without generating CO2. I also know we as an industry are terrible at keeping the public informed in a way that doesn’t terrify them, or make it seem like we are hiding something. I want to change that.