Antinuclear

Grim outlook for nuclear radiation disaster, less bad for Australia

Dr Caldicott said any fall-out was unlikely to affect Australia, though the death toll in the northern hemisphere could be severe.

“Australia is probably not going to be affected by fall-out because the northern and southern air masses don’t mix.”

Caldicott: Japan may spell end of nuclear industry worldwide | Independent Australia, 16 March 11, –  ‘The situation is very grim and not just for the Japanese people’ One person who is in no doubt about the seriousness of the incident is prominent anti-nuclear campaigner, Dr Helen Caldicott. Independent Australia spoke exclusively to Dr Caldicott yesterday as she was in transit to Canada to speak at a hearing into a proposal to build four new power plants in Darlington, Ontario. The situation is very grim and not just for the Japanese people,” said Dr Caldicott.

“If both reactors blow then the whole of the Northern Hemisphere may be affected,” she said.

“Only one reactor blew at Chernobyl and it was only 3 months old, with new cores holding relatively little radiation; these ones have been operating for 40 years and would hold about 30 times more radiation than Chernobyl’s.”

Dr Caldicott cited a report from the New York Academy of Sciences, which said that over 1 million people have died as a direct result of the 1986 melt-down at Chernobyl, mostly from cancer. She said authorities had attempted to “hush up” the full scale of the Chernobyl disaster. The official 2005 figure from the International Atomic Energy Agency was just 4,000 fatalities.

The NYAS is a credible 200 year-old scientific institution. Their précis of the report is as follows:

This is a collection of papers translated from the Russian with some revised and updated contributions. Written by leading authorities from Eastern Europe, the volume outlines the history of the health and environmental consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. According to the authors, official discussions from the International Atomic Energy Agency and associated United Nations’ agencies (e.g. the Chernobyl Forum reports) have largely downplayed or ignored many of the findings reported in the Eastern European scientific literature and consequently have erred by not including these assessments……..
Dr Caldicott said any fall-out was unlikely to affect Australia, though the death toll in the northern hemisphere could be severe.

“Australia is probably not going to be affected by fall-out because the northern and southern air masses don’t mix.”

“But in the northern hemisphere, many millions could get cancer”.

Dr Caldicott said that, despite the best efforts of nuclear energy campaigners, the Japanese disaster is likely to spell the end of the industry not just in Australia but worldwide.

“We’ve had earthquakes in Australia before—no-one will want to risk this happening in this country.”

“But I think the nuclear industry is finished worldwide.”

“I have said before, unfortunately, the only thing that is capable of stopping this wicked industry is a major catastrophe, and  it now looks like this may be it.”

Caldicott: Japan may spell end of nuclear industry worldwide | Independent Australia

March 17, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, environment