Publication Laka-library:
Nukespeak. The selling of nuclear technology in America (1982)
| Author | Hilgartner |
| Date | 1982 |
| Classification | 6.01.0.40/19 (HISTORY / DEVELOPMENT NUCLEAR ENERGY) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
THE EXTRAORDINARY PUBLIC-RELATIONS CAMPAIGN TO SELL NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY-BASED ON WISHFUL THINKING, WILLFUL DISTORTION, AND BLIND SELF-INTEREST A language of euphemism and distortion, a language like "newspeak" from George Orwell's 1984, has profoundly shaped public debate about nuclear technology. As this carefully documented account makes clear, the government and nuclear developers have wholeheartedly adopted Nukespeak, the language of the nuclear mindset. War strategists speak of "megadeaths," and the possible destruction of cities is discussed terms of "clean, surgical strikes"; in the 1950s the Atomic Energy Commission chose to measure fallout dosage in "sunshine units," and today the Indian government refers to its atomic bomb as a "peaceful nuclear device." Nukespeak has been blatantly employed to seduce us into accepting the unthinkable; Nukespeak breaks through the language barrier and reawakens our power to think. "A splendid review of the subject-carefully researched, rich in anecdotes, and powerfully presented"- Carl Sagan
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