Antinuclear

Australians once feared the health impacts of nuclear. Now nobody’s talking about it

SMH Angus Delaney, May 1, 2025

In 1982, Helen Caldicott, one of Australia’s most prominent anti-nuclear campaigners, spent an hour with Ronald Reagan at the White House, warning the then-president about the dangers of nuclear.

“I came out of that saying I thought, because I’m a physician, that he had impending Alzheimer’s,” Caldicott, now 86, says. “Which he did.”

Caldicott fears Australia’s memory is also faltering.

From her home in regional NSW, Caldicott says people have forgotten that period where anti-nuclear activism was a key cause of the left and nuclear safety fears ran high.

As Australians prepare to cast a vote in an election which could have huge implications for the country’s energy future, nuclear proponents dismiss Caldicott’s fears as outdated.

But they are still lurking in the debate as an unspoken question over the Coalition’s policy to build seven nuclear plants nationally to offset the decline of coal power and help Australia reach net zero emissions by 2050.

When asked if nuclear energy production was a safety risk to Australians in April, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dodged the question and said the main reason for the concern was “about the economy”.

His government, in lockstep with the Coalition, is investing billions in a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS pact.

At the final leaders’ debate on April 27, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the government’s endorsement of AUKUS proved nuclear power was not dangerous.

“Who in his or her right mind would sign up to a nuclear submarine and put our sailors onto the submarine thinking that there was a concern about safety?” he said on Channel Seven.

But in recent weeks, Dutton has avoided drawing attention to his nuclear policy, and Labor has attacked him over not visiting the sites of the Coalition’s proposed reactors.

The issue was dragged onto centre stage this week as anti-nuclear protesters disrupted a Dutton campaign event and press conference – and their theatrics largely played on the fears people have around nuclear safety.

If Dutton were to form government, safety could come to the fore again because it would need to overturn the federal ban on nuclear energy, implemented in 1999 by John Howard in a deal with the Greens.

Despite the dangers being dismissed by Labor and the Coalition, Caldicott remains concerned about nuclear waste being improperly stored in Australia and contaminating water supplies – or even a Chernobyl-like reactor meltdown.

“It’s not being discussed at all, which is amazing to me”, Caldicott says. “People are very ignorant.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. UNSW associate professor Mark Disendorf says the fears are valid. He says earthquakes are common in the Hunter Valley – the site of one proposed reactor – and is concerned by a German government study that has shown proximity to a nuclear power plant increased the likelihood of leukemia for children under five.

He says that the argument that Australia’s stringent safety regulations and access to modern technology would make it immune to the dangers was “invalid because Australia has so little experience”.

In a statement, the Australian government’s primary authority for radiation protection and nuclear safety says nuclear power plants are designed to be safe and have significantly improved their operations in recent decades, “but cannot be considered entirely risk-free”.

……………….. “Australia does not have a large nuclear sector and there is low familiarity with nuclear science in the wider community,” it says.

A generational divide and ideological opposition to renewables are two explanations as to why anti-nuclear sentiment has faded, says social trends researcher and director of research at 89 Degrees East, Rebecca Huntley………………………………………………………………………………………. https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/australians-once-feared-the-health-impacts-of-nuclear-now-nobody-s-talking-about-it-20250324-p5lm2k.html?btis=&fbclid=IwY2xjawKA7V5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFISGV5ZEdSZW16a2ZnQzh3AR54eVK6JF8ohdYybFhLGtY2D9k94_z5LqoVHO8xa7LOALj64JcGRZvN5lMgWA_aem_rgh9nTz4UR4AV7RXbwaoig

May 4, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health