In April 2019, the internationally known pediatrician and anti-nuclear campaigner Dr. Helen Caldicott gave an interview to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She reviewed and added information to the 2018 book Fallout by Fred Pearce. Pearce recently travelled the world to visit the contaminated test sites, bomb making locations, nuclear power accident sites, and launch systems for nuclear weapons that are still on high alert. The concluding chapter of his book deals with the attempts at a cleanup of some of the longest lived and dangerous substances known to man.
Adding to the ten minute podcast with Helen Caldicott, this program contains readings from the book on the system failures during the decommissioning of the British Sizewell power plant, and a detailed account of the highly contaminated Hanford Reservation in Washington State where the plutonium for the American nuclear weapons arsenal was produced. This largest environmental cleanup project in the US now costs $2.3 billion a year.
Helen Caldicott is the author of many books, among them Sleepwalking to Armageddon; Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming; and Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do.
Fred Pearce has done international reporting on environmental science from 85 countries. He has written for the New Scientist, the Guardian newspaper and Yale University’s E360 web site. His many books include: The New Wild, When the Rivers Run Dry, The Coming Population Crash and the Land Grabbers.
Thanks to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Dr. Helen Caldicott for permission to rebroadcast this podcast, recorded on April 28, 2019.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 19.9MB)
