The contamination caused by nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons production has created some of the most toxic places on earth. Ever-more-dangerous radioactive waste and epidemics of cancer may be in store if the Bush administration's agenda for worldwide nuclear-waste "recycling" is implemented in the years to come. What exactly is the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), introduced by George W. Bush in 2006? What is involved in the reprocessing of nuclear materials, and what are the far-reaching medical and public health ramifications of this process? These are some of the questions Dr. Caldicott puts to Robert Alvarez in this revealing interview.
Alvarez is Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. and a national award winning writer. Between 1993 and 1999, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and Environmental Policy and was the Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy. Alvarez has recently authored an in-depth analytical report on the GNEP. Read Alvarez's articles Magical Thinking About Nuclear Waste and Nuclear Recycling Fails the Test. Also see Reframing reprocessing: Miracle of recycling, or nightmare of proliferation?
Alvarez and Dr. Caldicott also examine how the Bush administration has reignited the Cold War with Russia, how U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories are pressing to resume lucrative bomb production with the mentality of a cargo cult, and why nuclear disarmament could still be achieved with sufficient political will.
After a music break, the show concludes with a clip from a presentation by Tom Rosenstiel, Director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, at a Washington, DC symposium organized by the Nuclear Policy Research Institute in 2004. Rosenstiel explains how the information revolution is leaving the public less informed about critical issues.
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