ATOM'S EVE: Ending the Nuclear Age

The evils of nuclear power are covered from every conceivable angle in these excerpts from articles and speeches by some of the leading nuclear opponents. Thus, Dr. Helen Caldicott discusses the health hazards of plutonium and uranium; Barry Commoner and solar expert Denis Hayes examine the economics of nuclear power; Vernon Jordan describes the high cost of energy for blacks; E. F. Schumacher and physicist Amory Lovins urge greater reliance on conservation and ""soft"" technologies; the ACLU's Ira Glasser examines nuclear power's threat to civil liberties; and John Gofman labels himself and other atomic scientists ""war criminals"" for developing the bomb. There are also articles on nuclear meltdown, weapons, and wastes; plus a Pennsylvanian's personal account of Three Mile Island, a description of cancer-afflicted children by Jacques Cousteau, an energy ethics statement by the National Council of Churches, and a chronology of nuclear development beginning with the first atom bomb explosion in 1945. We also have Lewis Mumford's unorthodox thought that the Allies destroyed Hitler's ""megamachine"" by building their own based on the atomic bomb, which then required a ""permanent state of war"" to keep it going. A lively mix of technical talk and rhetoric--like a teach-in without the music.