Nuclear Madness by Helen Caldicott

NUCLEAR  MADNESS

         Most early developers of nuclear energy explored its potential fifty years ago to produce bombs that would inflict unprecedented damage. Seven years after the United States tested two such weapons on the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the collective guilt generated by the deaths of some 350,000 Japanese civilians prompted the American government to advocate a new policy: the "peaceful use of atomic energy" to produce "safe, clean electricity," a form of power touted as being "too cheap to meter." Nuclear power production and the processes employed in the manufacture of nuclear weapons are responsible for generating billions of new radioactive atoms and molecules, and these are the second most prevalent sources of public exposure today. The difference is that you can turn X rays off, but radioactive waste lasts forever the vast bulk of the potential exposure for humans emanates from nuclear fission. 

        Whether natural or man-made, all radiation is dangerous. There is no "safe" amount of radioactive material or dose of radiation, because by virtue of the nature of the biological damage done by radiation, it takes only one radioactive atom, one cell, and one gene to initiate the cancer or mutation cycle. Any exposure at all, therefore, constitutes a serious gamble with the mechanisms of life. Today's safety standards have already been shown by several studies to be dangerously high. The increasing exposure to radiation of workers and the general public by the nuclear industries implies tragedy for many human beings. Increasing numbers of people will have to deal with cancer, or, perhaps more painful still, deformed or diseased offspring. Of all the creatures on Earth, human beings have been found to be one of the most susceptible to the carcinogenic effects of radiation because their cells are rapidly dividing, fetuses, infants, and young children are the most sensitive to radiation's effects. Radiation is insidious,...