Title of book: NUCLEAR ENERGY: Technology from Hell
Author: Neeraj Jain
Published by: AAKAR BOOKS, Delhi
450 pages, Price Rs. 295
The government of India is attempting to set up a string of nuclear plants across the country, with imported and indigenous reactors, and also start several uranium mines. People everywhere, from Kudankulam, Jaitapur, Mithivirdi, Gorakhpur to Jadugoda and Gogi, are fighting these projects.
The government is deriding these movements as being anti-development, and the country’s top scientists and leading intellectuals are claiming that nuclear energy is clean, green, cheap and safe, and is the solution to the country’s future energy needs.
In reality, nuclear energy is none of these. Nuclear energy is very expensive. Neither is it green and the sustainable solution to the energy crisis. But the biggest problem with nuclear energy are the safety issues associated with it -the deathly radioactive pollution of the environment caused by leakage of radiation from the mines and nuclear reactors, the as yet intractable problem of safe storage of high level wastes, and the potential for catastrophic accidents. For these reasons, nuclear energy was already in decline the world over, the Fukushima accident has sent it into a tailspin.
Discussing the problems of nuclear energy in depth, and giving alternate sustainable solutions to the energy crisis in the country, Neeraj Jain has written a book, NUCLEAR ENERGY : TECHNOLOGY FROM HELL. The book release function of this book is being organised on Saturday, January 21, 2012. On this occasion, Lokayat has organised a SEMINAR on Nuclear energy. The details of the program are as below:
SPEAKERS:
Justice P. B. Sawant, Retd. Justice, Supreme Court of India
Bhai Vaidya, former Home Minister, Maharashtra State
Prof. Sulabha Brahme, noted economist
Date: January 21, 2012
Time: 5.30 to 8 pm
Venue: Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, Near Bharat Natya Mandir, Sadashiv Peth, Pune.
COMMENDATION OF BOOK BY PRAFUL BIDWAI:
Nuclear power is the greatest energy fraud ever played upon the world. Inherently and unacceptably unsafe, it leaves behind radioactive poisons for thousands of years, besides exposing people to hazards at each step of the nuclear fuel chain. It is unaffordably costly, predatory upon public funds, and locks the energy system into the wrong trajectory. This book is a scathing, well-documented, passionate critique of the nuclear industry. Analysts and activists will find it valuable at a time of growing popular resistance to nuclear reactors at Kudankulam, Jaitapur and other sites.
Praful Bidwai, Columnist, former Senior Editor of The Times of India,
and author of The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis: Mortgaging Our Future
COMMENDATION OF BOOK BY MADHU BHADURI, IFS
Exceptionally well researched … systematically uncovers many lies of the powerful nuclear lobby in India and abroad in its claim that nuclear energy is safe, clean and green. The facts presented in a simple and straight forward way reveal instead how dangerous and destructive it is…
The author marshals evidence from many diverse sources … to make the powerful case that nuclear reactors are devastatingly unsafe. Indeed, so unsafe that without government guarantees they cannot be insured. No wonder the Indian government kept its nuclear program in a totally non-transparent wrap of official secrecy … This book cogently argues and compels the reader to agree that neither economic logic nor concern for the environment but the power of vested interest alone has forced decision makers to opt for nuclear energy … a must read to illuminate one of the most important debates of our time.
Madhu Bhaduri, IFS, former Ambassador of India to several countries,
was associated with the Indian mission to the IAEA, Vien
Related articles
- Is there a future for nuclear energy? (earthtimes.org)
- Fukushima… everything under control? (thebovine.wordpress.com)
- Does the world need nuclear energy? (greenanswers.com)
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