In this episode, I speak with Dr. Helen Caldicott — the "single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises.”✇ We discuss the fallout of the current situation regarding the nuclear meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011, the myths and lies that surround nuclear power as a sustainable energy source, the danger posed by having nuclear power plants near coastlines and large bodies of water around the world, the current state of the nuclear power industry, as well as other subjects relating to nuclear power and the dangers it poses for life on Earth.
Nuclear power has been heralded as a safe, clean, and necessary source of energy for the modern developed society, but what are the risks inherent in developing and using nuclear energy, and what examples can we look to that stand in the face of this assertion? Dr. Helen Caldicott discusses the lasting and long-term impacts the development of nuclear energy has had on the health of living beings on this planet since the first nuclear tests in the 1940’s. The most glaring example of the dangers posed by nuclear power comes from Dr. Caldicott’s examination of the meltdown of several nuclear power units at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan in March 2011 after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami impacted the power plant and caused several facilities to collapse. To this day, highly radiated water enters the Pacific Ocean from this source — the effects of which work its way up the food chain through genetic mutations, impacting the health of every living thing on Earth — including human life. Dr. Caldicott describes the hubris and insanity required to produce such a toxic and everlasting problem on this planet, as well as other subjects relating to the subject of nuclear power, nuclear waste, and the nuclear weapons testing that occurred during the Cold War era.
Dr Helen Caldicott has devoted the last forty-two 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. Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1938, Dr Caldicott received her medical degree from the University of Adelaide Medical School in 1961. She founded the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in 1975 and subsequently was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and on the staff of the Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Boston, Mass., until 1980 when she resigned to work full time on the prevention of nuclear war. She has written for numerous publications and has authored several books, including 'Nuclear Madness,' 'The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush’s Military Industrial Complex,' 'Nuclear Power is Not the Answer,' and edited the 2017 book ‘Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation.’✇
✇Source: http://bit.ly/CaldicottBio
Episode Notes:
- Learn more about Dr. Caldicott’s years of work at her website: https://www.helencaldicott.com
- Learn more about Dr. Caldicott’s most recent book ‘Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation’: http://bit.ly/CaldicottSA
- Dr. Caldicott founded the US-based Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI), which became Beyond Nuclear: http://www.beyondnuclear.org
- The song featured in this episode is “Loops” by Kneebody & Daedelus from the album Kneedelus.
