EDITOR, HELEN CALDICOTT
THE NEW PRESS, $21.99
The worst-case scenario following the Fukushima meltdown – evacuating everybody within a 250-kilometre radius of the site (including Tokyo’s 50 million inhabitants), almost came to pass.
And that’s not the opinion of a scientist with a point to make, it’s Naoto Kan, former Japanese Prime Minister and now anti-nuclear advocate.
This collection of 20 essays on both the disaster (far worse than Chernobyl) and the dangers of nuclear energy contains some startling facts. The sheer volume of radio-activity released into the atmosphere after Fukushima was 500 times higher than Hiroshima.
The media and politicians, says Helen Caldicott, showed “woeful ignorance” of radiation. She organised a symposium in New York in 2013 and this is the outcome. The essays examine the long lasting fall-out and highlight the consequences for the nuclear industry.