When Ziggy meets Helen, beware of fallout

IT was billed as a debate between the ice and the fire, and from the get-go you could see it was going to be lively.

IT was billed as a debate between the ice and the fire, and from the get-go you could see it was going to be lively.

On one side of the stage was Ziggy Switkowski, who recently completed a review of nuclear power as an energy option for the Howard Government.

On the other was an agitated Helen Caldicott, passionately opposed to nuclear power.

Dr Switkowski, in his modest suit, with his soft voice, began by saying demand for electricity continued to grow, and 90 per cent of it came from burning fossil fuels. It would be good to bring that proportion down, he declared.

He said more than 30 nations were already nuclear-powered, and 30 per cent of power in OECD countries came from nuclear reactors.

On the sidelines, Dr Caldicott seemed to be working herself into an excited state. One foot pumped up and down against the floor. Her teeth tugging at her fingernails, she pushed her sleeves up and down her arms, rolled her eyes, shifted in her seat.

When given permission to speak, she declared: "Earth is in the intensive care unit."

It won't be long before we're all extinct, apparently, but it would be a mistake to try to halt the looming catastrophe by switching to nuclear power because, well, perhaps it's best to summarise: uranium miners will die of cancer, others will find their sperm is damaged, radiation gets into breast milk and then into babies, and infants are born deformed and later die of brain cancer and muscle cancer.

And the risk of fallout from a Chernobyl-style nuclear accident is real.

"I do not buy European food," Dr Caldicott said, especially not dried apricots, since most were from Turkey which "got a big lot of fall-out".

People who received a lethal dose of radiation would die horribly, "hair falling out, vomiting, bleeding to death", she said.

"We don't know how many workers in Australian nuclear mines have died of cancer," she said, because the Government did not want a study done.

With tears in her eyes, she recalled sitting at the bedside of children with cancer. "We can't promote that," she said.

In response, Dr Switkowski said this view of the nuclear option might be "somewhat dramatic". He repeated his view that nuclear power was among the safest industries in the world. In our region, China, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Japan and South Korea had nuclear energy, and it was on the way in Vietnam.

He believed the public was on board. When the nuclear review started 12 months ago, opponents were mostly concerned about what to do with the radioactive waste. The debate had since shifted to the cost, and the location of the reactors. Long term, nuclear power was likely to be Australia's only option.

As for Dr Caldicott's claims, well, they were "nothing like the figures I have seen".

"I don't exaggerate," Dr Caldicott responded. "I would be a fool to exaggerate."

She said you could get a design for a small nuclear bomb on the internet, and most of the ingredients from the hardware store.

Dr Switkowski did not reply, but raised his eyebrows, a gesture copied by more than one person in the room.