Top U.K. Scientist Pins Nuclear Energy's Bad Rap on James Bond

Dr. No's held back nuclear power for half a century, prof claims.

The head of the U.K.'s Royal Society of Chemistry has blamed James Bond for negative public perceptions of nuclear power. David Phillips specifically pointed to the 1962 classic Dr. No, in which the titular villain attempts to build a nuclear reactor before Bond tosses him in a cooling pool, as the starting point for longstanding cinematic portrayals of nuclear energy in a bad light. Phillips said that efforts to promote nuclear energy as safe, clean, and responsible have been hindered for the past 50 years because of the iconic supervillain in the Bond flick and dozens of anti-nuke films that followed it, from WarGames to The China Syndrome. We'd add that efforts to promote nuclear energy have also had to deal with such minor inconveniences as Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl, and, more recently, Fukushima, but sure! James Bond is definitely the reason that so many people don't trust nuclear power.