A word association list. Stimulus newspaper articles. An Internet search. Whichever of the stimulus items I use, the intent is to highlight that mathematics is involved in understanding why so many people are opposed to the nuclear industry and the problem of disposing of nuclear waste. Most of the response words do tend to be 'negative'.
Nobody ever seems to say 'cheap electricity'.
Stimulus Articles I have a collection from newspapers and magazines about incidents and other issues connected to the nuclear industry. I copy these and ask students to read them and then engage students in a brief discussion about the situations, and what there understandings are. For teachers who have not yet developed such a library for themselves, paraphrased articles are included as Stimulus Sheet A and Stimulus Sheet B in this package. The internet search is a wonderful way to alert students to how many other people in the world are also concerned about this issue. Using key search words like Maralinga and Jabiluka, unearths a mountain of sites, many with much valuable and stimulating information.