Articles
Obama Nuclear Weapons and the Future of the Planet
Helen Caldicott, Huffington Post, 26 April 2010
Isn't it strange? In the 1980's an overwhelming 80% of Americans wanted to see an end to the nuclear arms race. The U.S. establishment treated this grassroots movement almost as an aberration, virtually ignoring it. This massive, global, grassroots movement helped bring an end to the Cold War. But, throughout the duration of the Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush presidencies there was no respect for, no move to act on, the wishes of the American people and the worldwide supporters of nuclear disarmament ... read more
Nuclear energy: money can't buy love
David Noonan, ABC (Aus), 3 March 2010
Nuclear energy is not only hazardous, but reliant on government subsidies to survive. Australia would spend its money more wisely on renewables. On coming to office President Barack Obama cancelled the proposed Mt Yucca deep geological nuclear waste disposal site after 20 years and over US$9 billion of public funds had been spent on this project. The US has had to go back to the drawing board on nuclear waste. Proponents of proposed new nuclear reactors in the US cannot explain how they will manage their hazardous waste in the long term ... read more
Fallout over NT nuclear dump site
Lindsay Murdoch & Tom Arup, The Age, 27 February 2010
Dianne Stokes says the Rudd government's decision to push ahead with plans to dump nuclear waste on the red-soil land north of Tennant Creek has caused trouble in her Warlmanpa tribe. "People have given away land that doesn't belong to them … now there is big trouble among us," she said. For centuries, Aboriginal clans followed their dreaming across the low scrub land that became known last century by white people as Muckaty cattle station. Now, some members of one of those clans have agreed to allow Australia's first national waste dump to be established on 1.5 square kilometres of land they claim is theirs in return for $12 million, most of it in cash ... read more
Another Nail in Nuclear's Coffin
Trevor Findlay, NewEnergyNews, 8 February 2010
The New Energy industries keep underestimating their growth. The most recent example is wind’s just announced unexpected 9+ gigawatts of 2009 installed capacity after predicting something more like 5 gigawatts in the face of the recession. The solar industry expected to flounder in 2009 in the wake of the bursting in late 2008 of the Spanish bubble but surpassed its previous year's installed capacity, setting a new annual record. In contrast, the nuclear energy industry keeps predicting a grand “renaissance” in which it recaptures its 1960s and 1970s glory ... read more
How Did an Idealistic President Become a Champion of Nuclear Power and By Default, Weapons Proliferation?
Helen Caldicott, The Huffington Post, 2 Febrary 2010
In 1983, Barack Obama, a senior at Columbia University described his visions of a "nuclear free world" in an article titled "Breaking the War Mentality" in the university newsmagazine, Sundial. He described discussions of "first- versus second-strike capabilities" that "suit the military-industrial interests" with their "billion-dollar erector sets," and called for the abolition of the global arsenals of tens of thousands of deadly warheads ... read more
Forum: France no example for nuclear power
Linda Gunter, Athens Banner-Herald (USA), 23 January 2010
It is perhaps no accident that the nuclear power industry chose a French word - "renaissance" - to promote its alleged comeback. Attached to this misapplied moniker are a series of fallacious suggestions that nuclear energy is "clean," "safe" and even "renewable." And, in keeping with its French flavor, a key argument in the industry's propaganda arsenal is that the United States should follow the "successful" example of the French nuclear program. France serves as a convenient sound bite for politicians and others advocating a nuclear revival. A failure to challenge this facile falsehood has cemented the myth of a French nuclear Utopia in the minds of the public. It masks a very different reality ... read more
High-level waste sets sail for Japan
World Nuclear News, 21 January 2010
The first consignment of solid highly active waste belonging to Sellafield's Japanese customers has started its journey back to Japan from the UK. The waste arose from the reprocessing of those customers' used nuclear fuel at Sellafield. The first stage was the transport of a single flask, containing 28 stainless steel containers of solid high-level waste (HLW) from the Sellafield site, on a specially constructed rail wagon, to the port of Barrow, ready for shipment to Japan ... read more
German nuclear storage site deemed unsafe
Staff writers, Nuclear Power Daily, 15 January 2010
German radiation protection officials said Friday that all 126,000 barrels of nuclear waste stored since the 1970s in an unstable and leaking former salt mine would have to be removed as soon as possible. "This is the best option for dealing with the radioactive waste stored there," said Wolfram Koenig, head of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS), which made the recommendation ... read more
Energy Department, NRC Back Nuclear, Ignore Industry’s Dirty Little Secrets
Art Levine, truthout, 7 January 2010
Edith Hood isn’t part of the grand debate over climate change as leading environmental groups and President Obama’s secretary of energy increasingly accept nuclear power as a necessary part of any solution to the global warming crisis. She is just a Native-American woman living in the Coyote Canyon reservation area of New Mexico, and back in 2007, she tearfully tried to convince a House oversight committee that the federal government should do more to clean up the uranium waste where she lives ... read more
Meltdown, USA: Nuclear Drive Trumps Safety Risks and High Cost
Art Levine, truthout, 6 January 2010
The pro-nuclear Department of Energy is set to offer this month the first of nearly $20 billion in loan guarantees to a nuclear industry that hasn't built a plant since the 1970s or raised any money to do so in years. But although the industry is seeking to cash in on global warming concerns with $100 billion in proposed loan guarantees, environmentalists, scientists and federal investigators are warning that lax oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the nation's aging 104 nuclear plants has led to near-meltdowns ... read more
Nuclear Options & Cashing out of the Chamber of Commerce
Podcast, Earthbeat Radio, 5 January 2010
Nuclear power proponents say it’s ‘clean energy’ because, unlike coal-fired power plants, nuclear power doesn’t produce carbon dioxide. In this encore episode we hear from Dr. Helen Caldicott the author of Nuclear Power is Not the Answer on the dangers of nuclear power and how it DOES create massive amounts of greenhouses gases. Dr. Caldicott joins the discussion with host Daphne Wysham ... listen to podcast
Helen Caldicott Slams Environmental Groups on Climate Bill, Nuclear Concessions
Art Levine, truthout, 22 December 2009
Dr. Helen Caldicott, the pioneering Australian antinuclear activist and pediatrician who spearheaded the global nuclear freeze movement of the 1980s and co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), has joined with left-leaning environmental groups here in an uphill fight to halt nuclear power as a "solution" to the global warming crisis. "Global warming is the greatest gift the nuclear industry has ever received," Dr. Caldicott told Truthout ... read more
If You Love This Planet: A Plan To Save The Earth (book review)
Henry Unwin, Ecologist, 2 November 2009
Helen Caldicott outlines the most pressing issues in the world today and provides a basic framework for solutions. From the founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility and founder of Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament comes a revised and updated edition of her widely read and highly acclaimed book, If You Love This Planet: A Plan To Save The Earth ... read more
The medical and economic costs of nuclear power
Helen Caldicott, On Line Opinion, September 14, 2009
Jennifer Nordstrom, co-ordinator of the Carbon-Free Nuclear-Free project has noted “Telling states to build new nuclear plants to combat global warming is like telling a patient to smoke to lose weight.” A recent study sponsored by the German government examined children who lived near 16 of the country’s commercial nuclear power plants. The results revealed a strongly increased risk of all childhood cancers, particularly leukaemia, the closer the proximity of the children’s residence to the reactor ... read more
Helen Mary Caldicott, MD, One Of My Personal Sheroes
Mickie Lynn, timesunion.com, August 22, 2009
Although Wonder Woman was my favorite superhero while I was growing up, Helen Caldicott and Superman also have some things in common. Saab Lofton brought this to my attention in a May 2007, COA News article “The Greatest Australian Hero:” ... read more
Uranium mining 'a health risk'
Aaron Fernandes, Science Alert, August 18, 2009
Uranium mining could present WA communities with a variety of health problems, from leukemia to congenital defects, according to a health expert at a recent forum. Speaking at the Public Health Association of Australia’s “Uranium Mining: What are the health risks for WA?” seminar, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr Helen Caldicott said the public health effects on Western Australians could be disastrous if plans to begin uranium mining in the State go ahead ... read more
Nuclear instability
Helen Caldicott, Online Opinion, August 14, 2009
Australia seems determined to lead the way to an unstable world which could result in two very different outcomes - global warming or nuclear winter. We burn and export coal in massive amounts producing more CO2 per capita than any other country and we are about to become one of the world’s major uranium exporters. Kevin Rudd remains wedded to the coal industry and the ALP now totally supports uranium mining ... read more
Happy Birthday Helen Caldicott
Barbara McPherson, NowPublic, August 7, 2009
The world should be wishing a happy birthday to Dr. Helen Caldicott today. Dr. Helen Caldicott was born August 7 1938 in Australia this woman has worked tirelessly to make the world a better place. If Dr. Caldicott had stopped at her outstanding achievements in medicine her accomplishments would have been noteworthy. Dr. Helen Caldicott went on from her Australian medical achievements to educate the public about the dangers of nuclear radiation ... read more
Profile: Helen Caldicott
Lucinda Schmidt, Money, Sydney Morning Herald, July 29, 2009
The day after the Federal Government approved a new uranium mine in South Australia, veteran anti-nuclear campaigner Helen Caldicott was appalled. In her view, exporting uranium, to any country, is morally indefensible. "I think it's devastating," she says, describing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and accusing Environment Minister Peter Garrett of moral turpitude ... read more
Uranium export is the first step to war
Helen Caldicott, The Age, July 18, 2009
While it is helpful and hopeful that US President Barack Obama is engaging with the Russians in specific dialogue aimed at reducing nuclear weapons after eight fallow years of the Bush administration, it is obvious that the urgency of the threat of nuclear war is little appreciated by world leaders ... read more
The Dangers of Stumbling Down the Nuclear Path
Helen Caldicott, Canberra Times, July 2 2007
Australia is in grave danger. Not only has the labor party joined the coalition’s open-slather uranium mine policy, but the Prime Minister is mooting domestic uranium enrichment, construction of 25 nuclear reactors on the East Coast, storage of foreign radioactive waste in Australia and reprocessing spent radioactive nuclear fuel in a "closed nuclear fuel cycle" ... read more
NT takeover is nuke dump ploy: Caldicott
The Age, July 2 2007
Anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott says the federal government's intervention in the Northern Territory is a ploy to allow the dumping of nuclear waste in the outback ... read more
Nuclear Power and Uranium Mining
Helen Caldicott, Adelaide Advertiser, June 29 2007
Contrary to industry propaganda nuclear power contributes substantially to global warming. Fossil fuels used to mine and enrich uranium, construct and decommission the reactor, transport and store the intensely radioactive waste for eons of time produce global warming gases ... read more
Nuclear CO2 Warming Costs
Helen Caldicott, UPI Outside View, May 21 2007
The fact is, it takes energy to make energy -- even nuclear energy. And the true "energetic costs" of making nuclear energy -- the amounts of traditionally generated fuel it takes to create "new" nuclear energy -- have not been tallied up until very recently ... read more
Is BMD Futile?
Helen Caldicott, UPI Outside View, May 18 2007
The first military use of outer space was the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The second was defensive systems designed to stop them. Missile defense against ICBMs has never worked. Despite five decades of failure, the idea has continued to haunt military planners since the Cold War began ... read more
The Greatest Australian Hero
Saab Lofton, COA News, May 9 2007
Dr. Helen Caldicott and Superman have a couple of things in common--both of them were born in 1938 and they're both die hard anti-nuke activists (see the movie Superman IV: The Quest for Peace if you don't believe me). They obviously differ in gender and hometowns - the extraterrestrial "man of steel" was raised on a Kansas farm whereas Dr. Caldicott came from Melbourne, Australia (hence the title of this piece) ... read more
Fuel plan beset by fossilised thinking
Helen Caldicott, The Australian, July 25 2006
AUSTRALIA is perfectly placed to be the real energy superpower: the instigator and global leader in renewable electricity production. A country bathed in sun and ferociously windy in many locations, Australia could, with political will and vision, usher in a safe, carbon-free and nuclear-free future. Instead, ... read more
We should not be exporting uranium because you are exporting cancer
Erin O'Dwyer, Sydney Morning Herald, July 6 2006
Not recognised among Australia's 100 most influential people, anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott still stands tall on the world stage, Erin O'Dwyer writes. "We've gone backwards decades under Bush and Howard" ... read more
Campaigner attacks nuclear inquiry's credibility
Kerry O'Brien interviews Helen Caldicott, 7.30 Report, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, July 3 2006
Twenty-five years ago, Australian doctor Helen Caldicott was one of the most powerful and compelling figures on America's public stage. She founded a movement of more than 20,000 physicians and scientists against the nuclear arms race, and even her enemies had to acknowledge the potency of her appeal ... read more
Nuclear Power's Sick Legacy
Helen Caldicott, The Age, April 17 2006
The noted American writer Mary McCarthy once famously observed of the equally noted but politically discredited playwright Lillian Hellman: "every word she utters is a lie, including 'and' and 'but' ". As we have seen over the past 10 years, the same can be said of the Howard Government from the children-overboard scandal to "there will never be a GST" to "yes, there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq". Now - joined by misguided and misinformed members of the ALP and a few scientists who should know better - the Government is embarked on another mendacious, ill-advised, and downright dangerous enterprise: transforming Australia into a nuclear-powered, uranium-exporting nation, deploying as a rhetorical fig leaf the spurious message that nuclear power is emissions-free, green, and safe and will save Australia - and indeed the world - from the effects of global warming. Let's pull away that tattered fig leaf and look at the facts ... read more
Once a Sunset Industry, the Uranium Lobby Paints a Green Dawn
Helen Caldicott, Sydney Morning Herald, August 12 2005
Global warming has been a great gift to a nuclear industry that was on its knees. Its reputation was so dismal that Wall Street investors gave it a wide berth, its only salvation the public teat ... read more
Don't Play Power Games with Our Lives
Helen Caldicott, The Age, June 29 2005
Two thousand years ago Hippocrates laid down a dictum: "primum non nocere" - or "first, do no harm" - meaning it is a physician's moral duty to induce no harm or injury to a patient during treatment ... read more
A Star War that Fails the Test
Helen Caldicott & Craig Eisendrath, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 15 2005
On May 18, Tim Weiner reported in the New York Times that the Air Force is seeking President Bush's approval for a national-security directive that would bring the country closer to deploying offensive and defensive weapons in outer space ... read more
Outside View: Huge Costs of Nuclear Power
Helen Caldicott, The Houston Chronicle, May 25 2005
There is a huge propaganda push by the nuclear industry to justify nuclear power as a panacea for the reduction of global-warming gases ... read more
No Weapons in Space
Helen Caldicott & Craig Eisendrath, The Baltimore Sun, May 19 2005
The Bush administration is clearly moving toward putting weapons in outer space. It has spent about $500 million a year in research on those potential weapons in the past few years ... read more
Nuclear Proliferation
Helen Caldicott & Scott Harris, Znet, April 14 2005
The Bush administration has taken a hard line against nations they say are engaged in the development of nuclear weapons ... read more
Nuclear Power is the Problem, Not a Solution
Helen Caldicott, The Australian, April 15 2005
There is a huge propaganda push by the nuclear industry to justify nuclear power as a panacea for the reduction of global-warming gases ... read more
McNamara: Nuclear War Still Possible; NY No. 1 Target, USA
Jon E. Dougherty, Newsmax.com, June 3 2004
The threat of devastating nuclear attack by Russia against the United States has not diminished, warns former Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara ... read more
NPRI President Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq, USA
Lisa Richwine, Reuters, May 25 2004
The U.S. military should clean up depleted uranium ammunition scattered across Iraq to prevent future health problems such as cancer and birth defects ... read more
Still on Catastrophe's Edge
Robert McNamara and Helen Caldicott, Los Angeles Times, April 26 2004
As we continue to grapple with the United States' vulnerability to terrorist attack, we fail to recognize the most serious danger, one that is overlooked by politicians and emergency management agencies alike ... read more
