Caldicott blasts nuclear report

North Side Courier
Wednesday 29/11/2006, Page: 5

Australia's pre-eminent anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott last week delivered a blistering attack on nuclear power at a Mosman Rotary Club lunch at Taronga Zoo.

Coming just hours after the release of the Switkowski report, which gave a green light to Australia's nuclear power and uranium industries, Dr Caldicott slammed the "scientifically illiterate politicians" leading the charge towards a nuclear future.

"I testified before that committee and it was clear that those gentlemen had already made up their minds," Dr Caldicott, a former Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the inaugural winner of the Australian Peace Prize said.

Dr Caldicott has written several books on the perils of nuclear energy, and her speech at Taronga drew heavily from her latest offering, Nuclear Power is Not the Answer.

In her discussion about the dangers of global warming and radioactive waste, Dr Caldicott was scathing of those selling nuclear power as a "clean, green" alternative. "The Switkowski report is a Trojan horse," Dr Caldicott said.

"It's for Howard to open up the whole country for uranium mining and bring America's nuclear waste back here" In his report on the viability of Australian nuclear power, former Telstra Chief Ziggy Switkowski envisioned 25 nuclear reactors generating a third of Australia's electricity by 2050.

"Our observation of modern nuclear reactors is that they are very impressive bits of technology, very safe, arguably safer than alternatives," Mr Switkowski said when interviewed on Channel Nine.

These conclusions fly in the face of Dr Caldicott's assessment of nuclear energy, which she insists creates not only grave environmental risks, but security liabilities as well. "To be promoting nuclear power in the age of terrorism is sheer lunacy," she said.

Dr Caldicott argues that, given Australia is in possession of 40 per cent of the world's uranium, it is in a unique position to "stop the nuclear industry in its tracks." "We should have a solar panel on every house and wind farms all over the country," Dr Caldicott said.