The Enemy Within: The High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors

After reading this book, I became a committed opponent of Nuclear Power. The authors perform an excellent service in alerting everyone to the hazards we are all faced by any amount of nuclear radiation. When this book is read along with Ralph Graeub's The Petkau Effect: Nuclear Radiation, People and Trees, the astonishing realization will strike the reader-there is no such thing as a 'safe level' of contamination from any radioactive material. A basic level of chemistry and statistics is also required in understanding this subject. Unless the reader has some basic knowledge of how matter is constructed-an understanding gleaned from Chemistry 101-then this topic can be mysterious and easily misunderstood. Although the authors do a good job on the statistics, they never approach the subject of the number of atoms that are contained in a given volume of material. The basic idea in the background to this topic is from physical chemistry; one needs to grasp what is contained in the idea behind Avogadro's number: 6 x 10 to the 23rd power number of atoms are in one mole of a material. What this means is that counting downward to even millionths or billionths of a mole would still leave huge numbers of radioactive material: subtract 10 to the sixth for a million and that leaves 6 x 10 to 17th power! While this idea is explored by Gould, he probably did not have space from his editors to explain it fully. What the book does do is to give an excellent overview of the statistics-living near (within 100 miles) a nuclear power plant places women and children at great risk. The author conclusively proves that the high incidence of breast cancers in women and thyroid cancers in young children in these areas is linked to the fallout from these leaky devices that we call nuclear power plants.

Notice the writer (singular, because I'm sure it's all the same person) of the three preceding one-star review opuses does not even identify himself. Does this person work hands-on in the nuke industry? We must have compassion for those who have been suckered into this cytogenic time-bomb of a career. They may be just as hilarious as Homer Simpson. For more information about how low-level radiation has likely affected myself and others who merely made the mistake of living near Los Alamos, see my review of 'Deadly Deceit' by J. Gould.

This is a fascinating statistical analysis of cancer-clusters and other immune deficiency problems linked to low-level radiation exposure from nuclear power plants and the testing of nuclear weapons. It raises important questions regarding public health which are all too seldom addressed anywhere. The authors' conclusions are a wake-up call for concerned citizens to begin challenging corporate and governmental silence surrounding the real/potential dangers of the nuclear power/weapons industries. A controversial, but important read!

In a followup to his 1991 book _Deadly Deceit_, Gould issues a devestating indictment of the nuclear power industry. Using his irreproachable statistical expertise (in over 30 years, he never lost a court case in which he appeared as an expert statistical witness), Gould shows the direct correlation between deadly diseases and living downwind from nuclear reactors. Why does the U.S. government no longer release the data showing the amount of radiation released from Nukes? Because they don't want you to know that Nukes never have been and never will be safe. Instead, they are exposing U.S. citizens to deadly toxins that kill them or make them more susceptible to cancers and autoimmune diseases. For anyone who wants the irrefutable evidence supporting these claims, this is a book you must read.