Issue Day is an annual regional conference of junior high and high schools in southern Arizona. Researched, designed and planned by the Junior Class of Green Fields Country Day School, Issue Day is designed to heighten awareness of an issue important to the youth of the world (www.greenfields.org/issueday/issueday2000.html) More than 500 students from over 30 public and private schools in the region attend Issue Day each year. In previous years the students chose topics such as “the American Health Care System”, “Sex, life and adolescence”, “Violence” and “AIDS”.

The title for Issue Day 2000 was “Saving the Biosphere I”, and focused on current local and global environmental concerns. About 40 speakers from a variety of fields and viewpoints talked at Issue Day 2000. A sampling of the speakers includes a representative of the chemical industry, an advocate of chemical-free pest control, an environmental historian, a representative of Sierra Club, a lawyer specialized in defending citizens from unreasonable claims by environmental groups, a ranch manager, a water management specialist, an endangered species activist, a solar energy advocate, a promoter of anti-nuclear civil disobedience and yes… a nuclear power advocate too.

Sama Bilbao y León, sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), traveled to Tucson (Arizona) to speak at Issue Day about the role of Nuclear Science and Technology in saving the biosphere. During the day Sama held four 40 minutes workshops attended by about 30 students and a few adults each. She talked about nuclear safety and nuclear waste, and compared the full cycle green house gas emissions for several energy sources, all by engaging the students with various interactive activities. Through these activities it was shown to the students that nuclear power is already contributing to save the biosphere by avoiding the emission of hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 every year. The students were also very surprised when the volume and danger of nuclear waste were put in perspective. Most students had a very positive and open-minded attitude towards the facts and figures that they were presented during the talk, and they asked many interesting questions.

At the end of the day, there was a panel discussion formed by a selected group of speakers, and the students were allowed to formulate questions to the speakers. There were a few questions related to nuclear safety, and the anti-nuclear advocate raised some issues about the economics of nuclear power and insisted that more research should be done in renewable energies instead of subsidizing nuclear power. Sama was given two minutes to reply to these allegations, and said that “The fact that I have come here to speak about the benefits of nuclear power does not mean that I don’t support renewable energies. It is not an either/or situation. I think that both nuclear power and renewables can have a positive contribution to saving the biosphere”. In addition, very constructive conversations with the anti-nuclear advocate and other speakers took place after the panel discussion, and during lunch. This positive interaction between NA-YGN and anti-nuclear activists has continued during the subsequent months via email.