Higher Power: An American Town’s Story of Faith, Hope, and Nuclear Energy
Casey Bukro
Dec 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Adam Barr
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19 hr 18 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
Nuclear power once promised to be the solution to the world's energy crisis, but that all changed in the late twentieth century after multiple high-profile accidents and meltdowns. Power plant workers, finding themselves the subject of public opposition, became leery of reporters. But one plant in Zion, Illinois, allowed unrestricted access to one journalist: the Chicago Tribune's Casey Bukro. Bukro spent two years inside the Zion nuclear plant, interviewing employees, witnessing high-risk maintenance procedures, and watching the radiation exposure counter on his own dosimeter tick up and up. In Higher Power, Bukro's reporting from the plant is prefaced by a compelling history of the city of Zion, including a tell-all of John Alexander Dowie, a nineteenth-century "faith healer" who founded Zion, and whose evangelism left a mark on the city well into the modern era, even as a new "higher" power-nuclear energy-moved into town. With the acceleration of climate change, the questions and challenges surrounding nuclear power have never been more relevant. Should we try to address the mistakes made in the past? What part could nuclear power play in our energy future? Higher Power explores these questions and examines one American town's attempts to build a better society as a bellwether for national policy and decision making.
About the author
Casey Bukro, the Chicago Tribune's first environment reporter, became "the nuclear reporter" while covering the Zion Nuclear Power Station from the inside, including in radioactive zones. He wrote the Code of Ethics adopted in 1973 by the Society of Professional Journalists and was awarded the Wells Memorial Key in 1983.
Adam Barr, a recovering lawyer, former golf industry executive, former singing telegram messenger, and former print and television reporter, now bends the energy of all those "formers" toward his passion for acting and singing. He lives near New York City with his family.
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