Outside View: Nuclear Cancer Factories : Melbourne Indymedia

by Helen Caldicott
Outside View Contributor
Melbourne (UPI) Jul 12, 2005

Yet, certain ill-informed public figures and business leaders ignorant of the basics of biological science and genetics, who are prescribing the use of nuclear power to inoculate the world against the potential calamitous consequences of global warming, are instead violating Hippocrates' dictum at a profound level. Nuclear power will, without doubt, induce harm to global public health in a massive way and over generations.

A standard 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor contains the equivalent radiation to that released by the explosion of 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs. The electricity generated comes at the expense of the production of that radiation. Indisputably however, radiation induces cancer and genetic disease by causing the mutation of genes.

Children and the elderly are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to the effects of radiation than others. The incubation time -- that is, the time between exposure and the manifestation of symptoms -- for cancer is five to 60 years; no tumor, though, appears with a "caused by" sign attached. Furthermore, the effects of radiation are cumulative. Each dose received adds to the risk of developing cancer or producing genetic disease in the offspring of those exposed to it. That's why we advise people not to have more medical or dental X-rays than are absolutely necessary

Yet nuclear power plants routinely discharge millions of curies of radioactive elements into the air and water. The so-called" noble" gases -- krypton, xenon and argon -- are readily absorbed by humans through the lung and deposit in the abdominal fat pad and upper thighs, where they irradiate the testicles and ovaries with high-energy gamma radiation. Tritium, radioactive hydrogen, is also routinely released.

Tritiated water is absorbed directly through the skin, lung and digestive tract and is incorporated directly into the gene where it is mutagenic and carcinogenic. People living near nuclear power plants are exposed through routine and accidental releases to these carcinogens and others, and there are plenty of studies in the peer-reviewed medical literature which show that in the areas surrounding older nuclear reactors in the United States there have been increased incidences of malignancies of various kinds.

Then there is nuclear waste.

Each year some 30 tons of thermally, radioactively-hot nuclear waste, laced with highly radioactive elements, are removed from every standard 1000 megawatt reactor and stored in cooling pools, awaiting final disposal.

Radioactive elements are tasteless, odorless and invisible. When they enter the environment they concentrate thousands of time at each step of the food chain -- in an aquatic environment in algae, crustaceans, and fish small and large; and on land - in grass, milk and meat.

These elements also include radioactive iodine which concentrates in leafy vegetables and milk and when ingested migrates to the thyroid gland where it causes cancer. In Berarus, near Chernobyl, over 2,000 children since the reactor melted down in 1989 have had their thyroids removed because of cancer, a situation unheard of in medical history.

Then there is Strontium 90, which concentrates in milk (including human breast milk) and can induce bone cancer and leukemia; Cesium 137, which concentrates in meat and induces a malignant muscle cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma; and Plutonium, named after the god of hell, which is so carcinogenic that 1-millionth of a gram causes cancer. Each reactor makes over 440 pounds of plutonium a year. Handled like iron by the body, it causes lung cancer, liver cancer, bone cancer and leukemia, and it crosses the placenta where, like thalidomide, it can damage a genetically normal embryo. It also has a predilection for the testicle, so that every male in the Northern Hemisphere carries a small load of plutonium in his testicles from weapons-testing days.

Eighty thousand tons of this high-level waste, which remains radioactive from hundreds to tens of thousands of years, sits in inadequately protected cooling pools throughout the United States, while huge quantities also accrue at reactor sites in France, Japan, Germany, and other countries.

The simple truth is that high-level waste will contaminate water and food over time, inducing epidemics of cancer and leukemia, particularly in children, while increasing the incidence of genetic diseases in future generations.

Prognosis: Nuclear reactors are potential cancer factories and we should not look to them to solve the problem of global warming.

Prescription: As a matter of public health policy, we should not be replacing one damaging technology with another that is even more damaging.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2005 by United Press International.

NUCLEAR POWER NO SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE PUBLIC MEETING
MONDAY JULY 3RD @TRADES HALL 6:30PM Corner Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton

Keynote Speaker Helen Caldicott launching her latest book on this topic. The single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises, Dr Helen Caldicott, has devoted the last 35 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction. Other speakers: Hillel Freedman Nuclear Free Australia Jacob Grech Organised by Nuclear Free Australia http://www.nukefreeaus.org and Melbourne University Press http://www.mup.unimelb.edu.au

Nuclear Power is not the Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else

Dr Helen Caldicott

Melbourne University Press $24.95 Publication/embargo date: 3 July 2006

‘Helen Caldicott has been my inspiration to speak out.' — Meryl Streep

‘In a world where dark and dangerous forces are threatening our planet, Helen Caldicott shines a powerful light. This much-needed book reveals truths that confirm we must take positive action now if we are to make a difference. – Martin Sheen

In a world torn apart by wars over oil, politicians have begun to look for alternative energy sources, and their leading choice is nuclear energy.

In this revealing examination of the costs and consequences of nuclear energy, world-renowned antinuclear spokesperson Helen Caldicott debunks the myths that belie the nuclear industry propaganda: she supplies evidence to show that nuclear power contributes to global warming; that the true cost of nuclear power is prohibitive, with taxpayers picking up most of the tab; that there's simply not enough uranium in the world to sustain nuclear power over the long term; and the potential for a catastrophic accident or a terrorist attack far outweighs any benefits.

Trained as a physician, the bestselling author of Nuclear Madness and Missile Envy here turns her attention from nuclear bombs to nuclear lightbulbs. As she makes meticulously clear in this essential book, the world cannot withstand either.

The world's leading spokesperson for the antinuclear movement, Dr Helen Caldicott is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, the recipient of the 2003 Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom and the inaugural Australian Peace Prize awarded by the Peace Organisation of Australia, 2006. A medical doctor, she has devoted the past thirty-five years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age. Dr Caldicott is a bestselling author and divides her time between the central coast of New South Wales and Washington, DC, where she is President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute

DOWNLOAD THE POSTER:
http://www.nukefreeaus.org/

And stick them up all over the place because the newspapers seem to be doing a good job in towing the government line on the recently stepped-up "debate" about nuclear energy for Australia.

NUCLEAR POWER IS NOT A SAFE, CLEAN OR GREEN SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE.

The debate, framed by government and the nuclear industry in opposition to coal power, is a radioactive smokescreen to expand uranium mining.

The nuclear energy cycle is far from being safe or greenhouse gas emission-free. Even if it were, nuclear power addresses the source of only around 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions – electricity production.

http://WWW.Weapons, Water and Waste.

*Nuclear power provides all the fuel and infrastructure required to make nuclear weapons ( if it weren't for uranium mines and nuclear reactors there would be no nuclear WMDS threatening our planet)

*Nuclear power uses vast amounts of water , (up to 153 million litres of water per day from the Great Artesian Basin is proposed by BHP Billiton for Olympic Dam mine alone, along with a proposed 400 megawatt power station)

*Nuclear power uses vast amounts of chemicals (including ammonia, sulphuric acid, kerosene, lime) in the process of mining and milling uranium

*Nuclear power uses vast amounts of fossil fuels, from mining, milling, treatment, enrichment, fuel reprocessing, reactor construction, reactor decommissioning and all related transports

*Uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel is energy intensive

*All reactors themselves will eventually become nuclear waste

*After 50 years of the nuclear industry there remains NO proven storage or management solution for nuclear wastes, some of which remain deadly for up to 4.2 billion years

*Nuclear energy, particularly reactor construction and decommissioning, is extremely expensive and diverts funds from safe, clean sustainable and existing alternatives

*Nuclear reactors, storage sites for spent fuel and transports of nuclear wastes by road and sea, especially plutonium and spent fuel rods, are recognised by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency and the nuclear industry (including ANSTO) as security and terrorism risks

*Germany , a world leader in solar energy, is set to reduce its CO 2 greenhouse gas emissions to one fifth of current levels by 2050 - whilst phasing out nuclear energy
THERE IS NOTHING SAFE, CLEAN OR GREEN ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER

Real energy solutions consist of:

* De-centralised energy generation (domestic solar and wind)
* Greater energy efficiency
* Energy conservation
* Investment and subsidised development of a combination of existing sustainable energy sources (solar, wind, geothermal, non-native forest biomass and wave power generation)
* Investment and development of new technologies such as photovoltaic sliver cells [link]

MORE
See http://www.foe.org.au/documents.htm for the report “Nuclear No Solution to climate Change”

I did see many posters on the tramstops encouraging people about the privatisation of the Snowy River Hydro scheme so apparently that didn't work out and they took all those down and replaced them with the "HELP STOP TERRORISM IN AUSTRALIA" [ie: remove John Howard] posters you know the ones with the map of Australia made out of pictures showing scary stuff well I guess the government had already felled the trees to make the posters and paid for the advertising space to propagandise the public so they thought what the hell.

Anyway I will not be surprised to see posters popping up coercing people to think that nuclear energy is a good idea and will help stop climate change I even heard George Bush use the word "renewable" while talking about nuclear energy.

Hello

If anyone wants posters or leaflets ring me on 0417506150 email hillelfreedman@optusnet.com.au

we have 2000 ace colour posters for this.

Or come to the next NFA meeting 7pm Thursday June 15th Ross House 247 Flinders Lane Melbourne