Awareness of teachers in secondary education institutions on nuclear issues

The objective of this study was to determine the awareness of teachers inSecondary Education institutions on nuclear issues.The universe of the study consisted of teachers in Secondary Educationinstitutions located in İstanbul and İzmir under the Ministry of NationalEducation. The target study group consisted of 434 teachers in SecondaryEducation institutions located in Beşiktaş and Fatih districts of İstanbul, and Bucaand Bergama districts of İzmir. The study was conducted during the Spring Termof 2003/2004 educational year.Based on the findings from this study; one can conclude that the teachersin Secondary Education institutions are insufficiently informed about nuclearissues and that the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority has a lot to do about publicawareness on nuclear issues, which is one of the duties of the Authority. Teachersin Secondary Education institutions need to be informed particularly on the usesof nuclear energy, radiation and its effects, natural sources of radiation, methodsof protection from radiation, description and scope of TAEK, nuclear powerplants, nuclear reactor accidents and risk analyses.Awareness of teachers in Secondary Education institutions on nucleartopics significantly vary by gender. Female teachers have different viewscompared to male teachers on the idea that the most risky accidents in our livesare nuclear reactor accidents, that natural gas power plants are the bestalternatives to the solution of our country?s energy problem in the future, that themost worrying side of nuclear power plants is their collapse in an earthquake inaddition to likelihood of accidents and the issue waste disposal and this differenceis meaningful. Male teachers are more aware on the existence of a nuclear powerreactor in Turkey.It has also been established that the faculty-graduate teachers in SecondaryEducation institutions are more aware about the natural sources of radiation andsignificance of the radioactive material compared to those teachers who havegraduated from institutes of higher education.It was also understood that teachers in Bergama were more informedcompared to teachers in other districts about the use of nuclear technology and thefact that they have to inform the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority when they seeanything left around containing the radioactive material sign. Moreover, they havestated the most suitable place to establish a nuclear power plant in Turkey wasCentral Anatolian Region (particularly Konya). Teachers in Fatih are more awareabout the radioactive material symbol and the nuclear power reactors in Turkey.Besides, they think that the solution to meet our national demand for electricityis to establish nuclear power plants. Teachers in Beşiktaş are more cognizant ofnatural sources of radiation compared to teachers in other locations. Furthermore,they consider, with a meaningful difference from others, that the most worryingaspect of nuclear power plants is the likelihood of errors and the issue of wastedisposal. Teachers in Beşiktaş are less aware compared to other teachers in otherlocations. Teachers in Buca have the highest awareness and competence onnuclear issues.One other important conclusion of this study is that, despite insufficient,incorrect and manipulated information on nuclear technology and its applications,our teachers put much emphasis on nuclear energy as an alternative for theproduction of electrical energy .Keywords: Education, Secondary Education, teachers, nuclear technology