Higher Power: One American Town's Turbulent Journey of Faith, Hope, and Nuclear Energy

By
Casey Bukro (Author)  

Hardback

PRE-ORDER released 10 August 2023

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An in-depth, timely examination of a religious cult that founded a city, the nuclear power plant that moved in, and the reporter who was allowed inside. Nuclear power once promised to be the solution to the world's energy crisis, but that all changed in the late twentieth century after multiple high-profile accidents and meltdowns. Power plant workers, finding themselves the subject of public opposition, became leery of reporters. But one plant in Zion, Illinois, just forty miles north of Chicago, allowed unrestricted access to one journalist: the Chicago Tribune's Casey Bukro, one of the first environmental reporters in the country. Bukro spent two years inside the Zion nuclear plant, interviewing employees, witnessing high-risk maintenance procedures, and watching the radiation exposure counter on his own dosimeter tick up and up. In Higher Power, Bukro's reporting from the plant is prefaced by a compelling history of the city of Zion, including a tell-all of John Alexander Dowie, an evangelist who founded Zion as a remedy to the gambling, drinking, and other depravities he'd witnessed in Chicago. Bukro explores the spectacle of Dowie's "healing ministry," the fears that drove Dowie's followers to invest in building a religious society, and the eventual fall of that society, making way for a new "higher" power: nuclear energy. With the acceleration of climate change, the questions and challenges surrounding nuclear power have never been more relevant. How and should we try to address the mistakes made in the past? What part could nuclear power play in our energy future? Higher Power explores these questions and examines one American town's attempts to build a better society as a bellwether for national policy and decision making.
Casey Bukro, the Chicago Tribune's first environment reporter, became "the nuclear reporter" while covering the Zion Nuclear Power Station from the inside, including within hazardous radioactive zones. A leader in journalism ethics, Bukro wrote the Code of Ethics adopted in 1973 by the Society of Professional Journalists and was awarded the Wells Memorial Key in 1983. He served as the society's national ethics chairman and was the former president of the Chicago Headline Club, a professional chapter of SPJ. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.
  • Contributor: Casey Bukro
  • Imprint: Surrey Books,U.S.
  • ISBN13: 9781572843233
  • Number of Pages: 248
  • Packaged Dimensions: 152x228mm
  • Format: Hardback
  • Publisher: Surrey Books,U.S.
  • Release Date: 2023-08-10
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Biography: Casey Bukro, the Chicago Tribune's first environment reporter, became "the nuclear reporter" while covering the Zion Nuclear Power Station from the inside, including within hazardous radioactive zones. A leader in journalism ethics, Bukro wrote the Code of Ethics adopted in 1973 by the Society of Professional Journalists and was awarded the Wells Memorial Key in 1983. He served as the society's national ethics chairman and was the former president of the Chicago Headline Club, a professional chapter of SPJ. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

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