ML22221A244
| ML22221A244 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 05/05/2022 |
| From: | NRC Region 1 |
| To: | |
| Kenneth Kolaczyk, NRR/DRO/IRAB, 58577389 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML22221A240 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML22221A244 (35) | |
Text
Communicating Technical Information to the Public NRC Knowledge Management U.S. NRC Region 1 05 MAY 2022
Disclaimer 2
- This training session is being recorded for future use in the NRCs knowledge management program. The recorded contents of the session, including any questions posted by audience members, will be preserved in accordance with the NRCs record management program and are subject to FOIA disclosure. Please refrain from including any sensitive information (i.e., SUNSI) in any questions that you may ask.
- Please leave your chat box open to view all questions and answers posed during the session.
Agenda
- A few basic principles
- A few effective techniques
- Lots of examples 3
Some Basic Principles to Consider
- We must understand our audience
- We must understand the environment that we are working in (whether we like it or not) 4 Face reality as it is, not as it was or how you want it to be.
- Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric
Basic Principles - 1 The O.J. Simpson Trial (my personal journey)
Basic Principles - 1
Basic Principles - 2
- We are emotional beings
- Generating an emotional response sells products.. and ideas
- Can you spot the facts and data in this advertisement?
7
Basic Principles - 3
- Fear is the most powerful human emotion
- Fear motivates
- Fear generates urgency
- Fear shuts-down rational thinking 8
Basic Principles - 4 9
His primary rules were: people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
We respond STRONGLY to repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition (aka the availability bias)
Basic Principles - 5
- Is it SAFE ?!?
- As scientists and engineers, this is a mathematical question (warranting scientific scrutiny)
- To the public, this is an EMOTIONAL question
- Scientific answers will be unsatisfying 10 Safety is the freedom from undue risk or harm Who determines what is undue?
How is risk determined?
11
Basic Principles - 6
- WE ALL have difficulty in comprehending very BIG and very small numbers.
12
Basic Principles - 7
- Economic theory always assumed that consumers are rational decision makers; they will always act in their own best interest
- Kahneman won the Nobel Prize for proving conclusively that this is not true
- Advertisers, magicians, and politicians have always known this
- We all act on a set of biases (heuristics)
- Thoughtful decision making is rare and takes significant mental energy 13
Basic Principles -
Closing 14 It is important to understand how people (including scientists and engineers) actually make decisions We must design our presentations in a manner that incorporates this understanding We have a duty to remain ethical in what we say and how we say it, regardless of the environment we are working in
Some Effective Communication Techniques 15
Disclaimer
- I DO want to share some personal examples that were effective
- I DO NOT want to make this presentation about ME
- I apologize in advance if, at times, it sounds that way. It is not my intention.
16 Huh. What did he just do here?
Technique - 1 17
- Impressions are formed in the first 5 minutes, and it is very hard to repair a poor start
- Tell a story
- Be conversational
- Give a sense of who you are as a person
- Grab their interest
- Show that you have done your homework (where appropriate)
- Skip the lengthy resume
Technique - 1
- Example: Phones on vibrate
- Example: Johnny and the bombing range
- Example: Greeting 18 Principles 1 & 2
Greeting and Welcome!
19
Technique - 2 Avoid reading from your slides (its soooooooooo boring).
Talk about them!
20
Technique - 3 Use graphs and graphics, but explain them (they are NOT self-evident) 21
0 1
3 0
4 6
29 5
21 1
7 2
2 0
0 0
0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Number of liquid releases Year Number of Liquid Releases & Volume - Pilgrim Station Volume (gallons)
Number of Releases 22
Technique - 4 Provide links to references 23
Publicly available at: https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/tritium/plant-info.html 24
The Earths Nuclear Reactor ?!?
25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor A fossil natural nuclear fission reactor is a uranium deposit where self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions have occurred. The phenomenon was discovered in 1972 in Oklo, Gabon by French physicist Francis Perrin Oklo is the only known location for this in the world and consists of 16 sites with patches of centimeter-sized ore layers. Here self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions are thought to have taken place approximately 1.7 billion years ago, and ran for a few hundred thousand years.
Technique
- 5 Show actual clips of the regulations or reports rather than re-typing them or reading them off-screen 26
NRC - 10 CFR 20 27
EPA - 40 CFR 190 28
Sample Results - Surface Water 2020 Release Point Note: No H-3 (tritium) was detected in 2011, the year with the largest number of liquid releases Sample Point 29
Technique - 6
- Put color and scale to good use
- to put relative amounts into perspective
- to create a visceral impact NOTE: a good graphic tells the story 30
0 0.141 0.23 0
1.98 2.48 4.43 0.099 6.2 0.0039 3.56 0.0015 0.00082 0
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Tritium Activity Released (Curies)
Year Comparison of Annual Tritium Releases, Gas & Liquid - Pilgrim Liquid Releases Gas Releases Note: values in the blue call-outs show the activity of Tritium in the liquid release, in Curies 31
3.00 0.90 0.57 0.10 0.05 0.12 0.08 0.03 0.03 0.05 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.05 0.01 0.00 0
20 40 60 80 100 120 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Dose from ALL Radionuclides in millirem Year Comparison of Liquid and Gas Releases to Limits - Pilgrim Liquid Releases Gas Releases Note: values in the blue call-outs show the TOTAL whole-body dose for ALL radionuclides and ALL releases in that year NRC annual whole-body dose limit as found in 10 CFR 20.1301 EPA annual whole-body dose limit as found in 40 CFR 190 Typical whole-body dose from one transcontinential flight in the summer season (4 millirem) 32
Technique -
7 33
- Drinking a sample of radioactive water to show that it is safe?
That is a stunt. It will backfire.
- Spilling 10,000 pennies onto a table to show what $100 looks like?
Use props (ethically)
Example: Radioactive Food
Technique - 8 Acknowledge uncertainty 34
Discussion 35