Public links to a new technology

Public understanding of nuclear power remained minimal for several years. As the public became more familiar with the harder more technical side of the nuclear option, it started to occur too many that nuclear power could affect them in ways that were not obvious when its promise first blushed. An important source for the new perceptions was the public advocacy groups, advised and bolstered as they were by the misgivings of a growing cadre of nuclear expatriots. Decommissioning is the new territory of nuclear power, a territory of unexplored complexity which possesses multiple links to the rest of the world. Public actions have affected many aspects of nuclear power. Decommissioning is an example of the public links to a technical task. To a large degree, industry preparations to deal with the expanding decommissioning web will be more the result of serendipity than anticipation. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.