NUCLEAR POWER – WEAPONS AND WAR – theme for August 2011
“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” - J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientist and “father of the bomb”
On the morning of 6 August 1945, the first atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy” was dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later the United States dropped a plutonium bomb code-named “Fat Man” on the city of Nagasaki. 140,000 people (almost all civilians) died in Hiroshima either immediately or within a few days. Deaths in Nagasaki were about 74,000. The survivors lived on, some with horrifying burns scars, some to die of radiation-induced illnesses
Following the war, many scientists involved in the atomic bomb project, turned to the “atoms for peace” program – nuclear power. They did this partly out of guilt, partly to continue to be employed. (Where would a nuclear physicist get a job, otherwise? Well, some were happy to continue with nuclear weapons development)
Nuclear weapons are an inevitable by-product of the nuclear power industry
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http://rabble.ca/news/2011/08/censorship-and-safety-health-canada-and-nuclear-information-blackout
Immediately after the Fukushima catastrophe, the Canadian government went into damage-control. Information on the unfolding nuclear catastrophe in Japan had clearly ignited the fears of many Canadians, as reports surfaced that Vancouver residents were flocking to drug stores to purchase potassium iodide in an effort to protect themselves from the effects of radiation. In an effort to assuage public opinion, Health Canada’s Dr. Paul Gully hastily stated on CBC news “that the risk to Canadians in Canada is negligible and will remain negligible, even in the worst-case scenario”.