Barbara Rose Johnston and Hugh Gusterson ponder nuclear realities at the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences

Barbara Rose Johnston:

Radiation is invisible, how do you know when you are in danger? How long will this danger persist? How can you reduce the hazard to yourself and family? What level of exposure is safe? How do you get access to vital information in time to prevent or minimize exposure? What are the potential risks of acute and chronic exposures? What are the related consequential damages of exposure? Whose information do you trust? How do you rebuild a healthy way of life in the aftermath of nuclear disaster?

Hugh Gusterson:

As an anthropologist, I am always interested in what humans learn from their mistakes. Can humans change their behavior, thereby improving their chances of survival, not just through natural selection, but also through cultural learning? Or are we hardwired to repeat our mistakes over and over, like humanoid lemmings?

More to the point, what lessons will we learn from the nuclear accident at Fukushima, an accident thought to be impossible just two weeks ago?

In this nuclear world, what is the meaning of ’safe’?

By Barbara Rose Johnston | 18 March 2011

The lessons of Fukushima

By Hugh Gusterson | 16 March 2011

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Text on above Tri-Valley CAREs NIF banner:

The Truth about NIF: Some Facts to Consider.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will use plutonium, the radioactive core in nuclear bombs. Plutonium in NIF will cause nuclear waste, radioactive emissions and worker exposures, according to the Lab's own environmental impact statement (EIS).

NIF will use tritium, the radioactive hydrogen in H-bombs. NIF's deuterium-tritium targets will be produced in Livermore, according to the EIS. Tritium puts our environment at risk.

NIF is for nuclear weapons, not energy. NIFís mission is to train the next generation of nuclear bomb designers. Only 15% of its experiments will be available for non-weapons related purposes, according to the Government Accountability Office and the Dept. of Energy.

NIF has technical problems that make its goal of ignition unlikely.

NIF cost more than $5 billion and its future operating costs will be nearly a half-billion dollars per year, according to the budget.

Wouldn't our tax money be better spent turning Livermore away from more nuclear weapons research and into a "green lab" instead?

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About Tri-Valley CAREs, from their website:

"Tri-Valley CAREs was founded in 1983 in Livermore, California by concerned neighbors living around the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of two locations where all US nuclear weapons are designed. Tri-Valley CAREs monitors nuclear weapons and environmental clean-up activities throughout the US nuclear weapons complex, with a special focus on Livermore Lab and the surrounding communities.

Tri-Valley CAREs' overarching mission is to promote peace, justice and a healthy environment"

Additional links to articles related to the NIF and Hugh Gusterson's work:

National Ignition Facility

Livermore Lab's website

Science Times at the NY Times

Thomas Friedman on the NIF

Hugh Gusterman's response to Thomas Friedman

Hugh Gusterman's home page at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists – look for regular columns by Professor Gusterson on this website!