I grew up near the tallest of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri — Taum Sauk — which is somewhat lower than Mount Everest at 1,772 feet. I’ve been involved in corporate communications for 30 years, most of which has been related to commercial nuclear energy. Previously, working with the World Association of Nuclear Operators, I helped nuclear utilities around the world communicate with each other, compare performance and emulate best practices. This included participating in a peer review of the Chernobly nuclear power plant six years after the breakup of the Soviet Union. An avid guitarist, my musical claim to fame was playing on the soundtrack to the 1970s slasher flick, Delirium.

So why nuclearbard? The name came from an idea spawned by The New
York Times best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb. Here’s her description of the role
of a bard:

In the Irish tradition, bards were the keepers of the legends. It was an oral culture, so everything you needed the next generation to know was handed down in stories. It wasn’t written down.

Bards had rules about their stories; each story had to do five
things:

• Define a people
• Describe a place
• Record history
• Transmit cultual values, and
• Entertain

And above all they had to entertain. If their story was not entertaining the first four valuable pieces of culture would have been lost because the children that were told the stories wouldn’t bother to pass it on. So, entertain or the truths will be lost.

So, that’s become the working version of a mission statement for this site. I treasure your comments and welcome ideas for future blogs.