Customer Reviews

Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do

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I once had the opportunity to see Helen speak. It was a lecture at the university of Guelph, some years ago. I thought it strange that she would constantly cite herself often and referred good intelligent questions back to "just read my book". So I did, and was disappointed. While intelligent I feel that she missed some of the larger physical concepts of nuclear power. I skip the physics lecture here but she does have quite a few contradictory points. Granted it was written by an intelligent medical doctor for the public and not by a physicist for graduate physics students. However I fear that she gives an entirely bias view of the subject. She fails to mention other vectors for transport of radioactive material, and entirely blames the nuclear industry. One omission that jumps to mind is the large number of unstable elements trapped inside coal beds, released into our atmosphere by the burning of coal. This one drove me nuts because if we are to rid our atmosphere of these agents then we must switch off coal. Sadly right now the only alternative to major power output is nuclear. Anyways I recommended the read if you want a intro to the debate but please don't take it as the only argument in one of the largest issues to face us and our children. To the students out there this is more nuclear energy 101 then a comprehensive advanced topics class. Much is skimmed over and nothing raised is without debate.

Cheers,

In the aftermath of Fukushima Dai-Ichi , Helen Caldicott looks prescient. The naysayers of this book look like fools who rushed to judgment.

Fear mongering and hysteria are strong words to use when describing a book, but they accurately apply to Helen Caldicott's 'Nuclear Madness'. She informs us, among other things, that a power plant disaster is imminent, likely to take hundreds, even thousands, of lives. Cities such as Denver may even now need be evacuated due to radioactive contamination. While they have been unable to build any new plants in decades, the powerful nuclear industry 'controls' our lives. Finally, it may be too late for any corrective action. Is there any up side to nuclear power? None of any kind, we hear.

There are several advantages and disadvantages to this kind of energy. It is all worth a healthy debate. Nuclear waste, accidents and contamination are all serious concerns. But it should be clear to everyone that we need all the energy we can get. Solar and wind can only generate a tiny amount. So we would do well to cut out the fear and hysteria.

What an awful pile of clap trap. I suggest that Ms Caldicott educate herself in the fields of physics and radiation as this is clearly lacking. As a physicist who has worked in both the nuclear energy and medical radiation fields, it appears to me that Ms Caldicott skirts around any factual evidence as this would disprove her contradictory arguments and instead wishes to engender scare politics and mass hysteria.

I am very disappointed that any publisher would agree to publish this without adequate research. One can only assume that their knowledge of physics is also extremely lacking.

Everyone in America should read this, and her new book, "The New Nuclear Threat." Dr. Helen Caldicott is one of the most brilliant minds of our time and should be thoroughly thanked for her strength as a human to inform the rest of us about this horrible threat. And to the man who wrote that scaring the "uneducated public" sells books, you obviously don't know anything about Ms. Caldicott, who is fully opposed to capitalism. Shes a socialist, and isn't doing it for the money, shes doing it so you don't die.

According to Helen Caldicott, the criteria by which she judges the nuclear power industry to be an evil and destructive influence on society could easily be applied to every major industry that we have. Should we then accept the moral challenge to fight every one of these industries? Obviously not, since this makes up the fabric of our society, for better or for worse! Nuclear power has its risks, like any power source that we have. But then, each of us wants our lights and tv's and stereos without any sacrifice or cost. Ms. Caldicott obviously preys upon the uneducated of our society. And who can blame her?! Her scary, frightening tales of the nuclear industry and their conspiracies sell books! And who can blame her for wanting the money!

My main complaint with the book is the way in which it ties the nuclear industry to the nuclear weapons programs that were shrouded in secrecy during the Cold War (for obviousl national security reasons). These two "industries" are not related. Are nuclear weapons bad and destructive? Of course! Is the nuclear industry going to destroy humanity and kill everyone on the planet? The mere claim is absurd! The nuclear industry is more heavily regulated than just about any other industry we have. And its safety record tops that of any of the heavy industries in America. Even the worst accident in the American nuclear power industry didn't claim a single life. There isn't a single heavy industry that can claim that.

This depicts Three Mile Island as though it was a realization of the movie "China Syndrome".
Actually no one was killed or injured. The only injuries occured when lawyers rushing to file lawsuits bumped into people at the Harrisburg airport. Radiation release was trivial.
All the lawsuits were eventually thrown out of court.
The meltdown catastrophe she describes didn't even penetrate the primary containment vessel.
Nuclear energy will be crucial as we confront declining supplies of oil and natural gas.

"Helen Caldicott as usual is one of the great saviors of our time. What she says here is absolute truth from my personal experience with the nuclear industry as a scientist sent in to measure radiation leakage from nuclear power plants through the 1970's-80's. This is a filthy, lying industry with no redeeming qualities and when the plants become obsolete they cost even more to clean up than they did to build. It's a mess and the cause of much cancers of all kinds world wide. The nuclear power industry is an unneccessary, damnable mess and should never have happened. Wind, water and solar is the way to go. There's no need for this filty, dangerous industry which hasn't figured out how to dispose of its lethal waste. Nothing on earth is filthier and more lethal!... Listen to Dr. Caldicott. She tells truth that is vital as can be!"...

Great book. Opened up my eyes to the evil that is nuclear power. If you want to know about this dirty industry pick this book up and prepared to be shocked and disgusted!

Come on.... this book has so many holes in it, I'm shocked I even read it! It is very clear that Ms. Caldicott has no faith in the nuclear power industry... frankly, I don't ether. However, the difference between me (and my moderate political stance) and Ms. Caldicott's LEFT WING, LIBERAL, SOCIALIST view's... is Ms. Caldicott makes money selling such Nuclear Waste like propaganda onto the unsuspecting public... and me... I sell cars for a living.

Interesting, in this book, how Ms. Caldicott very carefully tippy toes around all the shrewd and indecisive foreign policy blunders Bill Clinton made during his 8 years in office, yet she bombards Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush over EVERTHING their administration did in relation to anything they did... as if all the world's problems, especially Australia's, is George's and Ronnie's fault!

In all honesty, I came away from this book, glowing in the dark over the ridiculous so called facts and "claims" that Ms. Caldiott lobs back and forth in this book! I will, however, giver her a high grade for her "simple" and "effective" use of sentence structure and writing style. Of course, being the highly complex LEFT WING SOCIALIST LIBERAL ... she knew well enough to write such a book based on a "7th grade" reading level.
*clap clap clap clap clap clap*