Fukushima and the Future of Nuclear Energy

My Grandfather, the late R.C. Rogers was a very wise and intuitive man. An electrician by trade, he was stationed with the Navy in the South Pacific in August of 1945 when atomic weaponry brought about the end to World War II. For the remainder of his life, Granddad credited the Bomb with saving his life. Yet he also regretted it.

My father recalls that a few years after Granddad retuned from the war, he would say that he regretted the Atomic Bomb because he believed the incredible power and potential of nuclear energy would forever be tainted because it was introduced to the world through the destructive power of atomic weaponry.

Now, some 66 years after Japan bore the destructive power of the atom in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the island nation has new challenges brought on by the catastrophe at Fukushima. Combine the ghastly images of atomic destruction from World War II with the vivid memories of 1979’s Three Mile Island accident and the 1986 Chernobyl Disaster; there is good reason why the world is taking a critical look at the nuclear industry.

It is still too soon to evaluate the long-term effect of the Fukushima crisis but the historical evidence of the past can really help us in the debate.

In 2000 the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) released the comprehensive results of a long-term study following Chernobyl. The only fatalities directly attributed to radiation exposure were limited to employees and first responders who came in nearly direct contact with the burning nuclear reactor during the emergency or participated in immediate cleanup efforts.

As of 2005, only 50 total deaths were directly attributed to these exposures. This exceptionally low death rate stood in stark contrast to estimates of hundreds of thousands of presumed deaths or acute illnesses believed to be brought on by the disaster. The lead researcher, Dr. Fred A. Mettler Jr. determined that the greatest danger resulting from the accident was fear and politically motivated propaganda; not radiation.

Nuclear power plants do possess a significant danger. Yet science and medical research indicate that danger may not be as great as politics and fear may dictate they should be.

A second point to consider in the debate surrounding the safety of nuclear energy is the role modern technology and research play in the industry. The earliest safety feature in nuclear history was nothing more than a rope and an axe. In 1942 Nuclear pioneer Enrico Fermi initiated the world’s first controlled nuclear reaction—the birth of the nuclear power industry. In the event they lost control of the reactor, he had a man stationed with an axe ready to cut the rope that would lower cadmium rods into the reactor to stop the reaction.

Today, with 65 years of incredible research and development behind us, nuclear safety is greater than it has ever been. The Fukushima plant was actually designed with incredible safety features. The fact that it was subjected to one of the worst earthquakes and tsunamis on record is significant. For all the problems it has today, we must remember what it had to endure! We also need to consider that it was originally designed with technology that is now 40 years old. Any plant designed and built today would have significantly advanced safety designs and would have likely survived even the March 11 disaster.

The truth is that Nuclear Energy will always contain danger and the potential of a nuclear accident is a reality that regulators and engineers will always need to consider. Fear, irrational politics, and distorted propaganda are perhaps the greatest dangers when it comes to nuclear. The industry remains virtually untouchable as the best source for clean, efficient, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive power to serve a world thirsting for more and more energy.

Grandfather was wise beyond his years. That electrician rightly predicted that fear would inhibit the reasonable development of a much-needed industry. Three Mile Island proved his fears true as our nation foolishly put a halt to nuclear development—a mistake we are just now on the verge of correcting! As the world debates Fukushima and the future of the nuclear industry in light of this latest disaster, let us all hope that reason, science, and objectivity will prevail where once fear, propaganda, and irrational politics once dominated. 

Worship-full Work

            In my lifetime I have had a number of different jobs. In High School I bagged groceries for Furr’s Supermarket. I made hamburgers and breakfast biscuits for McDonald’s. I helped take care of children at the YMCA’s summer day camp program. I also sold flavored popcorn and had a few gigs as a professional clown.

            In college I operated remote cameras for distance learning through KENW-TV. As an intern at KOB-TV I co-produced television morning news. I also worked as a janitor for the Wesley Foundation.

Since my college days I have sold cars for two different dealerships and radio advertising for KSEL. Later I became a disk jockey for the station (back in the days when local radio station still played vinyl records and had real DJ’s on site).

             I enlisted in the US Coast Guard and spent quite a bit of time as a boat crewman, groundskeeper and janitor, and eventually trained as a cook and finished my military career on board the USCGC Midgett.

            All of that was before I entered seminary and started working in Christian ministry. Aside from my pastoral job, I also raise money for CARC and have worked in hospice chaplaincy and taught college classes. And those are just the jobs that I have been paid to do.

            In my life I have volunteered to serve on boards, cook food, care for the elderly, provide law enforcement and hospital chaplaincy services, and worked with several different clubs, civic organizations, and charitable causes.

            As with any job—volunteer or paid—there are times that I really enjoy the work I am tasked to do. Likewise, there are times when I really do not like it much at all. Yet, regardless of how much I may or may not like a particular task at hand, there is one thought that stays in my mind.

      Colossians 3:17 reads, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” This simple command from the apostle Paul comes at the end of a larger section of the letter that speaks to the way we conduct ourselves while living the Christian life.

      I raise the raise the issue of my diverse work history in the context of Colossians for one particularly important point. I have never had a bad job! Don’t get me wrong, I have had to do work that I don’t particularly enjoy at times. There have been times when I have not been happy with my job. But on the whole, I have never had a bad job.

      The key factor is one of attitude. I find that attitude through my Christian faith. Yet the attitude determines the outcome!

      Perhaps the most important factor, for me, is the realization that if I am doing something “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” it is a sacred act! I don’t care if I am preparing to preach a sermon or scrubbing greasy gunk out of a galley pan on the ship. It is sacred work if it is being done in God’s name. Then, suddenly, the value, purpose, direction, and meaning of the labor changes for the better!

      Truthfully, God needs all of the labors that make up our world. There is no job too mundane to be done in God’s name because the one performing the task is created in God’s image, called very good, and called to be a beacon of God’s light in the workplace.

      Think, for a moment, about how this makes profound differences in the workplace. The list is much longer than what I have here, but these are the top 10 reasons why working in God’s name makes a profound, positive, and meaningful difference in the workplace.

1.      God’s priority for equality, justice, fairness, and affirmation becomes a guiding principle of the workplace

2.      God is a part of what we are doing so we have access to God’s wisdom in the process.

3.      Since God truly deserves our very best, it is easier to give our best at all times.

4.      When the stupid stuff starts to get us down, we are less likely to lose sight of the higher purpose

5.      Our work is no longer a separate and secular endeavor that cuts us off from worshipping God. Rather, our work becomes yet another means to worship and glorify God.

So, today as we engage the daily chores of our life’s work—paid or unpaid—let us all honor God in the labors of our lives!

Who are We and What are we Supposed to do?

        Christians today need to be challenged with two questions.

1. Who are we?

2. What is God calling—or expecting—us to do?

They are not easy questions to ask or answer, but they are vital questions to consider.

        In writing about the ludicrous nature of some organizational statements of purpose, the late Peter Drucker said of hospitals that the very worst thing they could do is say that they are in the business of providing health care. The problem is, in Drucker’s analysis that hospitals should not be trying to take care of health. Instead, hospitals need to see themselves in the business of caring for people who are experiencing a crisis in health. It is people in crisis, not health care, that matters!

        When Jesus was challenged by those in authority that his disciples were not playing by the established rules and not doing things that were religiously appropriate, he countered their challenge by calling into question their assumptions of who they were and what their priorities truly were. The people had the outward appearance of dedicated religious individuals, but the thin façade of religiosity was inadequate to meet the challenges that come with living faithfully in the world.

        Drucker’s business analysis also looked at one of the most monumental failures in modern industrial and commercial history—the Ford Edsel. It was, perhaps the most thoroughly researched, engineered, and designed automobile of its day. On paper, it should have been the most successful product to ever roll off of a Ford assembly line. It’s failure, according to Drucker, centered in the fact that Edsel’s quality and cutting-edge technology existed only in the product, but not in the hearts and passions of Ford. A doom’s day mentality settled in at Ford and the greatest automobile ever designed, failed for lack of passion and devotion.

        So, as a person dedicated to the Christian faith, I must ask the questions: Who are we and what are we called to do?

        Who are we? First and foremost, we are children of our loving and living God as revealed in Jesus Christ. While that answer may seem trite to some and an oversimplification to others, it is perhaps the most profound statement we can make. We are part of God’s family. All we are and all we do reflects our understanding of what it means to be part of that family.

What are we called and empowered to do? We are a worshipping community of faith where all people grow in God’s grace, find acceptance and forgiveness in God’s love, are formed through Biblical witness, and are equipped for ministry in Jesus Christ.

It is important that we keep these points in the forefront of our actions for ministry. Rules, traditions, and customs have their place, but they are not the reason we exist as a congregation in Jesus Christ. Like the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ day, the danger we face is that of worshipping the tradition and upholding the letter of the law without regard to the ministry the tradition and law were developed to support. Together, let us be about the ministry of Jesus Christ that has been laid out for the family of God!