Atomic Energy

EIN News says, "Eight Dead, at Least 54 Missing in Russian Hydro-Power Plant Disaster. Eight people were killed on Monday and 54 were missing when a turbine room flooded at Russia's largest hydropower station, forcing steel and aluminium plants in Siberia to turn to emergency power. RusHydro, owner of the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant, said damage would run into "billions of roubles" and would take several months to fix. The company's shares were suspended in Russia and fell 13% in London. (nytimes.com)".
An interesting aspect is the energy basis of the disaster. Since it is a hydropower plant, it will generally go unnoticed. If it were an atomic power plant, chances are it would receive much more attention.
Atomic power is a very significant potential energy source. However, emotional damage has been created in the public mind over many years. Two major sources of such damage have been Jane Fonda's movie "China Syndrome", which was imaginary, and the Russian Chernobyl disaster, which resulted from inappropriate design and operation. These have been coupled with the general public fear, which is usually based on some fact coupled with a large amount of ignorance. The fact is that atomic power is a major force. It can theoretically do much damage, similar to the ammonium nitrate/diesel ship that blew up Texas City. The ignorance is that most people relate atomic energy only to a bomb, which previously blew up Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
One of government's responsibilities is to educate its people. Our government should be doing more on education of the US public with respect to atomic energy.