The End of the Nuclear Age: Where are the People? A week of events organized by the Nuclear Energy Information Service to provide balance to the celebrations organized at the University of Chicago on whose campus the first experiment to produce a controlled chain reaction was conducted, December 2, 1942.
Nuclear expert, engineer, and former nuclear utility vice-president Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education Corp, and Dr. Norma Field, professor emeritus, Dept. of East Asian Studies, University of Chicago, offer a sober counter to the promotional hype delivered at the official celebration of the first sustained nuclear chain reaction; an experiment conducted on the University's Hyde Park campus. Fields expressed disappointment that the University did not bring more of its resources into play for a holistic understanding of the event, but seemed to function as a prop to legitimate the celebration of the technology that resulted and which now provides the means for a small elite of men to destroy human civilization along with much of the biosphere under the guise of "security".
Gundersen talks about his trips to Japan to collect dirt samples following the nuclear reactor explosions at Fukushima and his work with Japanese citizens who seek the truth about the levels of contamination they are experiencing; there is wide spread distrust of the Japanese government and the utility TEPCO. The internet, reports Gundersen, has proved key as a tool for accessing truth and challenging the lies of government and industry. He offers a story of how his work helped save a marriage, and the terrible social pressure placed on mothers to return, with their children, to communities contaminated with radioactive particles.
He speaks of doctors under order from the Japanese government to diagnose the common effects of radiation as psychological in origin. And he reveals what he found in the dirt samples he collected and what a FOIA later revealed the NRC knew about the scale of the radiological contamination shortly following the nuclear reactor fires and meltdowns at Fukushima. He also comments on the Public Relations use of the 2020 Summer Olympics to decontaminate the country's image when the past six years have demonstrated the impossibility of decontaminating the land itself.
Dr. Fields speaks about the cultural and social consequences of the Fukushima disaster, and the shared experiences of Americans and Marshall Islanders who were irradiated as a result of nuclear fall out from the nuclear bomb tests, the experimentation by US Government funded scientists, doctors and researchers on humans, and the misuse of science and medical ethics to deny people the scientific basis of their suffering. Both speak of the social stigma that being irradiated produces and the failure of the Japanese government, like the US Government to prioritize human health and well being over political and financial interests. Fields refers to Representative Ed Markey and his Committee's report on human radiation experiments, one of which took place on the University of Chicago's campus. She raises concerns over the absence of any public critical assessment, during the 75th anniversary, by the University or its scientific community, of the larger ramifications and the ethical course that Fermi's successful experiment has lead US and all of mankind on.
Nuclear Energy Information Service, NEIS.org DePaul University
Dave Kraft of NEIS does the introduction providing context. http://neis.org/nuclear-experts-ask-where-are-the-people-as-nuclear-age-ends/#more-1250
Link to Rep Markey Committee report:ncf-net.org/radiation/AmericanNuclearGuineaPigs.pdf
Gundersen spoke on nuclear power and climate change the following day. Find that here: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/95105
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