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Tal

my question is whether you want to focus on the phsysics of electricity generation (or Energy in general) or whether you are expanding the scope to include social aspects.  

A few years ago I was part of a team from the Science Museum, London, that was commissioned to create n independent exhibition at the visitors centre at the Sellafield nuclear site - for those that don't know, its the largest civil nuclear site in western Europe, housing the worlds first commercial nuclear reactor, several research reactors, two reprocessing facilities and stores of high and intermediate level nuclear waste.  

Our exhibition covered some basic physics and technology (the control panel exhibit is popular) but swiftly moved into the debate about energy supply.  We tried a few ways of gathering and displaying visitor opinions while making sure they had access to enough information from all points in the debate to feel qualified to express an opinion.  The largest exhibit, an interactive cinema, let visitors plan, build and operate a nuclear power station while having to manage the consequenses.  

We used to log the scores of the final vote (audiences preferred form of electricity generation) and saw a clear split between local audiences (pro nuclear) and long-distance visitors (pro-wind).

The ownership of the centre changed hands and it is more closely tied to the nuclear industry.  I haven't been back since the change, but their new website shows that a lot of the exhibits remain the same (although the interpretation may not be).  They also changed the name and branding, as it used to be pitched as quite a serious place.  You can see the current set up here: http://www.go-experimental.co.uk/public/go-experimental.cfm

Regards

Andy


--- ISEN-ASTC-L automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From:   Tal Berman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:   Energy exhibition - nuclear & fossil energy exhibits
Date:   Wed 25 Jan 2006 05:01 AM 

Dear colleagues,
We in the Israeli National Museum of Science are now in the stage of
upgrading our energy hall.

As all our exhibits concerning solar energy and alternative energy 
sources are pretty straightforward to me as to what is their attractiveness. Two exhibits are hard for me to "pretty up" and make attractive to the visitor.

The first is nuclear energy, no matter what I do I end up boiling water....

The other is fossil energy.

Could you please make your experience available in these topics?

Thank you

Tal

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