A Proposal in Physics Teaching and the Democratization of the Nuclear Debate

Abstract

According to the National Energy Plan, by the year 2030, Brazil intends to build four nuclear plants
and by the year 2050, there will be another eight, in a total of fifteen thermonuclear plants in operation
in the country. Understanding the lack of information to the general public and the lack of joint
discussions with the various sectors that compose Brazilian society, the present work, carried out in a
state public school in Florianópolis / SC, aimed to encourage our students to claim themselves as part
of the discussions and debates on nuclear power issues. In this sense, assuming the dialectic between
technician and politician in these discussions, we share, in the context of the classroom, the experience
we had in the production and application of an instructional material related to the radioactivity and
the operating principles of the Angra dos Reis nuclear power plants. In this way, we have sought to
deconstruct some common misconceptions, which are even disseminated by the media and reproduced
by the public in general, on some specificities of radiation and the process of producing electricity
through nuclear energy. Therefore, it was possible to problematize some myths related to a supposed
neutrality in the process of production of scientific and technological knowledge, which, from a
perspective of technocratic supremacy, deprives society of its right to participate in the debates and
decisions of the area. Under the pillar of salvation, it points to nuclear energy as the solution to all our
problems in the face of the energy and environmental crisis that will be intensify in the coming
decades. Finally, based on the need to qualify our youth to the discussions and democratization of the
debate to the various sectors of society, here follows a feasible proposal of teaching and learning on
the subject at the high school level.