What we need is someone good at explaining the difference between radiation emitted by the reactor vs radioactive fallout. Maybe even some decent drawings.
I personally describe the reactor as a lightbulb. The “light” emitted from it isn’t carried by the wind. Radioactive dust and smoke are carried by the wind.
Link that explains exposure and contamination.
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/contamination.asp
And this one about sheltering in place...why?
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/shelter.asp
“What we need is someone good at explaining the difference between radiation emitted by the reactor vs radioactive fallout”
We might start by explaining what “radiation” is, but do you really think it’ll stick in their heads? People can’t be convinced that flying is safer than driving, or that cell phones aren’t sending death rays into their brains. There’s not much hope for education in nuclear science. When power plants enter their consciousness, people think of Chernobyl (the horror-story Chernobyl, not the actual Chernobyl), Three Mile Island (not the actual Three Mile Island), the China Syndrome. Radioactivity brings to mind mushroom clouds, those freaky silohouettes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, mutants, and giant ants/lizards. What can compete with that?