SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY
James Bond Villains Harm Nuclear Power's Public Image, Says Scientist
from the Guardian (UK)
He may have been On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but James Bond and the power-hungry villains he saved the world from did no service to the image of nuclear power, a leading scientist has claimed.
The film version of Dr. No, first screened 50 years ago and still a TV favourite, and other Bond movies have helped frame public perceptions of the hazards of nuclear power along with accidents such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima, according to David Phillips, president of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
He feared the portrait of the evil megalomaniac and his nuclear reactor hidden away on a Caribbean island contributed to the "entirely negative" and "remorselessly grim" perception of the industry as a force for evil. Phillips told the BBC that when nuclear power was discussed "it is not at all surprising that the public at home and abroad are sceptical."
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