To sit down and have a discussion with Italian nuclearists is not just useless, but counter-productive. It’s the classic story of the one who starts up a discussion with an imbecile. Anyone observing from the outside sees two imbeciles talking. Nuclear power was turned down in a referendum, full stop. It cannot be re-introduced by lobbyists and political lackeys, The people of Italy, who are used to putting up with almost anything, don’t want it from an instinct of survival. In the country with the most powerful mafias in the world who would manage the waste products? Nuclear costs more than any other type of energy: who will pay for it? In a few decades, uranium will run out and its price will go up from one week to another. It is the LEAST renewable type of energy in the world. Helen Caldicott, the author of:” Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer to Global Warming Or Anything Else”, explains the dangers of nuclear power for our offspring and theirs. Unemployed, with no pension and nuclearised.

Interview with Helen Caldicott

H. Caldicott: My name is Helen Caldicott. I’m Australian. I’m a paediatrician a children’s specialist and for four years I have been involved in the medical implications of nuclear power an nuclear war, as well as being on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and practising medicine as well.

Blog: Why are there still so many countries in the world, like UK, that are continuing to include the nuclear option in the energy mix?

H. Caldicott: Well a lot of people are quite ignorant about the nuclear fuel cycle and the radiation effects within the body and all the side effects from nuclear power from uranium mining to milling to enrichment to building the reactor to the reactor producing large amounts of routine radioactive emissions that produce radiation that then concentrates in the human food chain and then in breast milk and then bones and the lungs and also radioactive waste which lasts for about half a million years and over time will absolutely contaminate the food chain so people will be eating radioactive food and babies are 10 to 20 times more sensitive to radiation than adults. Foetuses thousands of times. And people don’t understand that this is a medical problem and most people do not have the biological information to understand it. Hence the nuclear power industry has been pushing a huge propaganda campaign saying that they are the answer to global warming because they produce no carbon dioxide. They actually do produce a large amount of carbon dioxide as well as they will produce epidemics of cancer, leukaemia and genetic disease in all future generations.

Blog: So how much do nuclear power cost considering all the costs that society pays?

H. Caldicott: Well a nuclear reactor itself costs about 12 to 15 billion dollars now to build but that and all the other parts of it, the enriching of uranium, the huge amounts of insurance that is all paid for by the government, the government subsidises the whole nuclear power industry – the costs of the medical problems down the time frame are not included. The costs of looking after patients, particularly children with cancer and genetic disease are never including. The costs of storing radioactive waste for half a million years are never included. The transportation of radioactive waste is never included. So that it's so much cheaper to conduct or build renewable energy sources like wind and solar and geothermal and co generation and high grade efficiency in the use of electricity.

Blog: Is there a safe nuclear power option at all?

H. Caldicott: No, absolutely not. There are absolutely no safe nuclear power options. If you read my book, "Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming," you'll understand why when you have read the book. There is no safe nuclear power. And equally you have to talk about costs to build nuclear power plants, but I'm sure Berlusconi doesn't understand what I'm talking about.

Blog: So who wants nuclear power?

H. Caldicott: Pardon? Who wants nuclear power?

Blog: Yeah, who wants it?

H. Caldicott: The politicians have been dealt a big a propaganda campaign and maybe some money, I don't know. The politicians are scientifically and medically illiterate. In other words, they understand no science. Like Berlusconi, what science does he understand? Does he understand medicine? How long it takes to get cancer once you're irradiated, like five to six years. Does he know the results for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
So most politicians are corporate shills, if you will, of the nuclear power industry. Like they are of the oil industry and the coal industry. They go where the money is, not where the people's future and well being and health is.

Blog: What about military lobbyists behind the nuclear option?

H. Caldicott: Well, of course nuclear power was founded in the Manhattan Project to produce plutonium to make bombs. And then nuclear power was an offshoot of that, because the people who built the bombs felt so guilty about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where they killed over 200, 000 people in a flash of light, that they thought if they could harness the atoms for peaceful purposes they would feel less guilt. I knew many of those men; I worked closely with them. They hated nuclear weapons, and I can tell you that their guilt was not assuaged by the time they died. And they knew, they knew, how dangerous it was and is. They're all in their graves now.
You should also know that every nuclear power plant makes 250 kilos of plutonium a year. Plutonium lasts for half a million years, and you only need five kilos to make yourself a nuclear weapon. So any country that has a reactor can make over a hundred nuclear weapons a year if they want.
That's why people are worried about Iraq. That's how Israel made its bombs. That's how Britain made its bombs. That's how Pakistan and India made their bombs. That's how China made its bombs. Nuclear weapons and nuclear power are part of the same industry. Once you've got nuclear power plants, you can have nuclear bombs.

Blog: Is there at least one example....

H. Caldicott: Does Berlusconi want nuclear bombs?

Blog: Is there at least one example in the world of correct management of nuclear waste?

H. Caldicott: No. No country has solved the problem of nuclear waste, nor will any country ever solve the problem. Because whatever you put it in copper, steel, concrete within 50 or 100 years, that will rust and break apart and nuclear waste will leak out into the environment, the water, concentrate in food, milk, meat, vegetables. And people will be eating radioactive food. Their babies will be born deformed, as babies are being born deformed now in Fallujah and Basra in Iraq, where they used radioactive weapons and still do. In fact in Fallujah, the doctors are telling mothers not to have any babies, because almost all of them are born grossly deformed, either with no brain, or single eyes, or no arms. I mean, that's what the future holds.

Blog: What should common people, normal people, citizens, do discard the option of nuclear power? Any options for that lobby?

H. Caldicott: Yeah. First, they must be well informed. It's imperative that they understand the information. I have to suggest I know my book has been translated into Italian that everyone who listens to this should read "Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming." And once they've read that, they need to spend some days with their feelings, working out what they're going to do. Truly we need a revolution against this really ghastly, wicked nuclear industry. It's much worse than tobacco, much worse than smoking, much worse than asbestos.
People can use their democracy by going to see their politicians and educating them. Take doctors with them dressed in their white coats with their stethoscopes. Go and see Berlusconi; take over Berlusconi's office.
Italians are good, I think. They're passionate people, they really care about life. They can work out what they're going to do to make sure their country closes down all the nuclear power plants.