Political Perspectives on 07/20/11

NUCLEAR ETERNITY: at Chernobyl, Fukushima and Onkalo with Joanna Macy and Natalia Manzurova (produced by TUC Radio)

How long does radiation from nuclear fuel remain dangerous to life? At least 100,000 years. At Fukushima that fuel lies littered under the ruins of the exploded buildings. Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy and Natalia Manzurova, who worked at Chernobyl after the accident, talk about nuclear eternity.

Natalia Manzurova is a Russian radiation ecology expert. For almost five years she worked in a lab in the abandoned town of Pripyat two miles from Chernobyl. She was an engineer at another nuclear facility in Russia and was ordered to the site of the accident. She saw several of her colleagues die and is ill herself.

A founder of Chernobyl Union, a support group for liquidators, Natalia Manzurova currently works with Planet of Hope, advocating for people exposed to radiation, such as downwinders, people living in radiation areas, and nuclear workers; a large and growing category of victims of the nuclear age.

She spoke in Berkeley on April 10, 2011. The Center for Safe Energy <http://www.centerforsafeenergy.org/>, that organized the event, had asked Joanna Macy, longtime anti nuclear activist and author of books such as: "Pass It On: Five Stories that Can Change the World" to give an introduction.

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