Antinuclear

Dr Helen Caldicott in Halifax, Canada

Caldicott …… is able to offer her audiences a potent mix of emotional and medical arguments.

VIDEO: Activist advocates for zero-radiation, maximum protest
By Frank Mand
Wicked Local Halifiax
 Mar 30, 2013 “ world-renowned peace advocate and anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott at the First Parish Church in Plymouth.
Caldicott, who was in town at the invitation of several local anti-nuclear groups, began her talk by saying she was honored to be speaking at First Parish, founded by the Pilgrims. But she paused to interject, “I can’t believe they named the nuclear reactor Pilgrim. It’s a reactor of carcinogens, a reactor of death.”
Caldicott wrote on a white board with colored markers to explain the types of radiation humans are exposed to, almost always unnecessarily, she said, and what the consequences of these exposures will be.
She didn’t paint a pretty picture.
The Nobel Prize-nominated physician suggested, among other things, that even minor exposure to certain radionuclides can, eventually, affect our reproductive organs, lead to cancer and result in birth deformities and a host of other ailments.

Caldicott also made unsettling claims about the effects of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, repeating the now oft-heard assertion that its design is nearly identical to the plants that imploded in Fukushima, and suggesting residents of the area are in serious danger due to their proximity to the plant…… She belittled the nuclear power industry in general, suggesting it was the stepchild of the nuclear arms industry.   The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is the nuclear industry,” Caldicott said. “They don’t understand medicine. They don’t understand radiation biology. They are the fox guarding the chicken coop. Dracula guarding the blood bank.”

If you ask yourself what is most precious in your life, she said, you’ll realize it is your children and grandchildren. Considering that the effects of radiation contamination are cumulative and long term (don’t appear for years or even decades), you’ll do everything you can to limit or stop altogether any military or commercial uses of radionuclides…..

Caldicott is also a trained physician (a pediatrician, she emphasized), so is able to offer her audiences a potent mix of emotional and medical arguments.

Anticipating those who would criticize her arguments on scientific grounds, she struck first, arguing that the NRC’s problem is that it does not approach assessment of the safety of nuclear power from a medical perspective. If it did, she said, the country would be awash in solar farms and wind turbines.

The world still looks to America for technological leadership, she added. If we made a full commitment to alternative, nonfossil-fuel-based energy production, the world would follow.

But Caldicott doesn’t see our elected leaders making a sufficient commitment to these issues, so she advocates for direct action…… http://www.wickedlocal.com/halifax/news/x2082723093/VIDEO-Activist-advocates-for-zero-radiation-maximum-protest?zc_p=1#axzz2PFCy5lBK

April 3, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized