HOVJ TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE

It is particularly important in this critical period in the application of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes for persons with technical expertise in nuclear energy matters to assist their elected representatives in making informed decisions by making factual technical information available to them, and by expressing opinions concerning the relevance to such information to the current nuclear issues. It has now been more than three decades since the scientific community was given the challenge to forge the sword of nuclear weapons into the plowshares of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. This challenge has been met-- and it is now possible for nuclear energy to make major contributions to our current and future energy needs now and in the future in a safe, reliable and economic fashion. It is ironic that the use of nuclear energy for meeting our energy needs is being slowed down by the discovery on the part of some Congressmen and activist groups that nuclear energy can be used for weapons as well as for peaceful purposes. The current debate on nuclear energy has been heavily weighted with emotion and fear; technical facts and operational realities are frequently lost in the deliberations involved in the decision making process—and Congress is in the center of this decision making process. It is the purpose of this paper to provide some insight into how a person with technical expertise in nuclear matters can effectively convey objective and factual information to his own representatives in Congress, and thereby help to bring some order to the near chaos that currently exists.