Richard J. Ronayne

Novella

Phenix Publishing Ltd

Nation-X Project

Dozens of my stories are currently being illustrated for release by Phenix Publishing Ltd for their Nation-X project, a multi-year project for 4-8000 word educational novellas.

This series was designed for young adults and high schoolers across Chinese and American schools, harnessing anthropomorphism to help digest mature, dark or joyful topics, whilst reflecting life, and exploring real social issues in an exciting and educational way.

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Nuclear Made Clear
By Richard Joseph Ronayne

CHAPTER 1: Warning Signs
Harry Hightail was sitting at the power control station in the most northern nuclear power plant of Northeastland. Everything seemed normal and he was tired from spending most the day unblocking one of the condensate polishers for the reactors. Doing so is usually a pretty standard operation, as the polishers filter the secondary loop water, they clog up over time with minerals and impurities.
On this occasion, the usual method of cleaning them, did not work. The built-up gunk was being too stubborn for a normal air compression fix, so they had to blow the compressed air straight into the water for some extra oomph. 
Then Reactor two had overheated suddenly, but automatically shut down, inserting coolant rods into the reactor. All sorts had gone wrong, but the monitors on his desk said that they were in the clear and more maintenance will have to be performed.
This took a lot more time and energy than Harry’s usual shift work, as he fought to stay alert with a handy mug of coffee to see him through the final stage of his shift. 
Harry looked at his favorite mug, which had a picture of him cuddling his seven-year-old chameleon daughter with the words World’s Best Dad written on it, he couldn’t wait to get home and give her another hug in time to put her to bed.
His thought was interrupted though as the monitors on his desk began flashing and an alarm sounded. It was the radiation leak alarm.
“No. This isn’t possible. We fixed the problems.” Harry complained out loud to himself. He checked his monitors as he opened comms with the reactor staff, “Radiation leak in the general containment building! My console says that Reactor two is fine though, I don’t understand how this has happened, but I have to declare a site area emergency! All unnecessary staff evacuate to the outer buildings, reactor containment staff get down there now and see what is going on.”
Harry knew they didn’t have long to contain the incident, they had to find the issue quick and repair it to avoid a full reactor meltdown. If they failed, Northeastland would be destroyed, killing millions. He took one more look at his mug before promising to himself that he wouldn’t let that happen.
He gave up on his monitors, knowing that budget cuts had left all the equipment here to decay, putting on his protective hazard suit, he joined his brave staff in the reactor room.
They were welcomed by chemical fires and found it hard to enter further into the room, Harry set his colleagues to containment duties as he took some readings. What he discovered was that they were indeed on the edge of a full meltdown, terrified, he composed himself, seeing that his staff had made a passage through the flames for him, he ran for the reactor.
He could feel the heat through his suit, seeing that the pilot-operated relief valve on the reactor was stuck open for some reason. He couldn’t get close enough to close it because of the flames, so, he quickly analyzed the situation and realized there was only one option left to save Northeastland.
Knowing the consequences, but left with no other option, Harry ran to the backup block valve and shut off the coolant venting systems to stop the reactor receiving any more fuel. He did so just in time, as a small explosion at the top of the reactor went off, the worst possible outcome had been avoided, for now, as tens of thousands of gallons of radioactive coolant flooded into the nearby river, Harry knew the river would be unfit for use for the next few hundred years, but his quick actions had saved the whole of Northeastland from the same fate. He hoped, after everything was over, the world would understand that, then he set about to continue his work, knowing that the fight to fully establish containment had only just begun.
Several tense hours passed as the military evacuated the nearby populations, the government enacted a lockdown around a massive area surrounding the plant as experts were brought in to help Harry and his staff fight to contain what was already a national calamity. 
Then days passed as firefighters aided in putting out the flames, the citizens of Nation X looked on in fear, but, eventually, they were successful. The meltdown had been narrowly avoided.
Though it was not entirely over for several months, as they continued to fight back the atomic reactions that were burning away in the reactor still, which was stopping them from deactivating it safely. After the plant had been fully shutdown, the government set to investigate what went wrong.
The results terrified the nation. They found that at multiple points there were wide spanning system and maintenance failures. The equipment was so old and outdated that it was falling apart, and the workers were insufficiently trained to manage the events that occurred, having missed multiple signs of warning as they relied on their faulty equipment too much.
The media portrayed the disaster as the fault of Northeastland’s Governor, Frank Todd. He had made so many budget cuts over the years that such a catastrophe was bound to happen eventually. The staff, not responsible for the poor training they had received, were held as national heroes for their quick thinking that saved the lives of millions.
Harry went home as a hero, though he personally blamed himself for allowing it to happen in the first place. He was shocked to learn the findings of the government’s investigation, knowing just how close they had come to a full reactor meltdown.
The investigation’s final point was to measure the radiation leak into the surrounding area. The area around the plant, and the usage of the river, were bordered off and quarantined. They would remain this way for hundreds of years before it would be safe for the general public to return to the area. 
This set of a flood of antinuclear protests in every city of Nation X, activists were calling for all nuclear power plants to be shutdown, seeing them all as ticking time bombs.
Bill and Max watched the news in fear of these protests as the lobbyists were gaining ground and really putting pressure on the government to give in to their demands. Bill turned to Max and said, “They can’t turn them off, Max. The world needs nuclear power now more than ever.”
Max agreed “I know, Bill, but people are so scared by it and all the power plants are so old and too expensive to modernize. I think they’ll do it.”
“No, they won’t, Max.” Bill said, “I’m going to lobby for pro-nuclear, so we can better inform the public why we need nuclear power, and I want you to help me.” 
CHAPTER 2: The People Have Spoken
The city center of Peace City was flooded with thousands of people, as they marched on City Hall. Traffic was at a standstill as police struggled to contain the demonstrations to minimize the impact on the city, but there were just too many. 
Colorful signs with such statements as Stop Nukes, Welcome to Radiation City and Let’s change the Nuclear Policy were lofted high by the rally as they repeatedly chanted Sayonara Nuclear Power.
Leonard Strike was present outside City Hall, preparing himself in front of a chimpanzee cameraman to report on the protest. He had gathered a few people to interview from the crowd as the cameraman counted down to go live on television.
“Leonard Strike reporting from outside of Peace City Hall, in front of scenes of unrest from the populace as the anti-nuclear lobbyists march to be heard. The protest has successfully remained peaceful despite crowds numbering in the thousands, and I have a few citizens here who have kindly agreed to explain their fears and reasons for the march, if you could please?” he said, turning and holding his microphone to Monica.
“Hello, my name is Monica Leap and I’m here today with my friends to make sure that our fears and demands for action are heard by those in power,” she said, standing with Amy, Tim, Sam, Peter, and Ben.
“Thank you for speaking to me today, the billions of people watching at home would like to know why you are opposed to nuclear power if you would care to articulate?” Leonard asked, pushing his mic back toward the group.
“Nuclear is bad!” Ben shouted out quickly.
“It can be,” Amy chimed in, “what we want is to avoid another incident like Northeastland. The government must be held accountable for the lack of maintenance on power plants that will inevitably kill millions unless the policies are changed now.”
“No nuclear power plants, no more nuclear weapons!” Sam shouted, content to get across the point he had read on the internet.
“That is true,” Tim responded, “the statistics are clear. There have been seven major nuclear power plant accidents in the last sixty years. Three were mostly contained, but the other four released radioactive energy that will take decades to clean. An accident like those four happens on average every twenty years and are responsible for thousands of deaths. It’s just a matter of time before another incident unless something is done now.”
“Another insightful reason, you’ve clearly done your homework, thank you. Do you have any more you’d like to get across?” Leonard queried.
“Yeh!” Sam said, stepping forward and grabbing the mic, “I read on the internet that nuclear power creates radioactive plutonium waste, Nation X has tons of it lying around because they can’t find a safe place to dump it.”
“Again,” Monica interrupted, releasing Leonard’s microphone and hand from Sam’s large grip, “that is correct. Nation X used to try to reprocess the nuclear waste so that it could recycle it as more fuel for the power plants, but they didn’t invest in the infrastructure to do so efficiently. It only takes one milligram to kill a person, a few milligrams to make a nuclear bomb and Nation X has millions of tons lying around the country because of this oversight. The more waste there is, the easier it will be for terrorists to steal it and make their own nuclear weapons. The government must change their policies.”
“Thank you, again. There you have it, folks, an admittedly well-formed argument being chanted by thousands here. The government must definitely be feeling the pressure to make change. I’m Leonard Strike, signing off.”
George Whitman turned the television off, “Well, gentleman, I’ve heard what you have to say, and I completely agree with you, but, as the governor of Westland, I can’t just announce the construction of a new nuclear power plant without a strong public relations strategy. What do you propose to overcome the public backlash and avoid those scenes from Peace City occurring in Sand Hill?”
He stood behind the desk in his office, as several members of the pro-nuclear movement had sat opposite for a meeting that had spanned several hours already. The group included Miles Keys (Minister of Science and Technology), Simon Kaden (Head of the Environmental Protection Agency), Eric Conners (Minister of Construction), Bill, Max, and Bill’s old tutor Gilbert Monks.
Bill and Max looked nervously at each other before giving a silent nod, “Well, Mr. Whitman, Max and I believe we may have an idea. The members of the public who just spoke to the entire nation, umm, they are our very dear friends.”
“I see,” George said, wiping his brow with a handkerchief, “do you believe they could also be convinced then?”
“Well, sir, they are intelligent and care very much about the environment. They don’t seem to see the bigger picture here though, I’m sure we could bring them to reason with a healthy debate, right Bill?” Max said as Bill nodded in agreement.
“Perhaps, as a whole group, your next meeting should be with them, then my fellow ministers here can get the pro-nuclear party’s television time to speak to the nation. If that goes well, then, and only then, will I have the political power to oppose Frank Todd’s call to commit to coal burning. Good luck and thank you for meeting with me today.” George said, officially ending the meeting.


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