Fallout: Disasters, Lies, and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age

Three Mile Island in the United States. Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union, now Russia. Fukushima in Japan. These are just some of the better-known industrial accidents within the “nuclear club,” the name given to that handful of nations that have wrested the secrets of the atom from Mother Nature. There have been plenty of others, which are carefully outlined within the pages of this thought provoking volume. Then there are the problems of nuclear waste, the stockpile of nuclear weapons, the underground and atmospheric testing of same, and on and on. Author Pearce paints a bleak portrait here, and his work presents more questions than answers. This is no Chicken Little claiming that the sky is falling. Eighteen pages of show more references to scholarly journal articles, websites, books and other documentation provide a firm foundation for his research and findings. The ultimate problem as this reviewer see it is this: the human race is slowly poisoning its collective self with radioactive pollution, while the responsible governments stall for time, hoping that some future generation will find a solution. One of the most moving sections of this slender book concerns a 72 year old Japanese man by the name of Baba Isao, who takes the author around the environs of the destroyed Fukushima power plant, which was hit by a tidal wave following an offshore earthquake in 2011. “Moving around his land, Baba showed me his plum trees: ‘The fruit is too dangerous to eat now. And the water in our well is contaminated too. Nature here is beautiful, but we can’t fish or collect bamboo shoots or eat the mountain vegetables that people used to harvest from the forests. All these are things of the past.’” (page 147). It is no exaggeration to say that it is heart rending when confronted by the plight of this forgotten, common man: “I am just the son of a farmer. I wonder who has a right to destroy our home and my livelihood.” He implores the author: “Please tell the world: No nukes” (page 148). The moment when Fred Pearce did just that may well be his finest hour.
Review by Michael F. Bemis show less

Don't let the title fool you - Fred Pearce is no anti-nuke radical. Fallout: Disasters, Lies, and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age cold have been an invective-filled polemic. Instead, Pearce gives us the really bad news about how the nuclear weapons race and nuclear power industry have damaged our world, but also gives a realistic assessment of how some of the "knowledge" we know is really a conservative assumption based on very little data. Pearce's book is a good intro to the problems we face and what we might do about it.

This is a well-researched tour through nuclear disasters throughout the world. Pearce travels to various disaster sites throughout the world - Chernobyl, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the test sites, laboratories and storage facilities in the American west, Fukushima - and explores the landscapes and personalities for himself while also thinking about the larger societal and scientific implications of these disasters.

I read this book because of the subject matter. But it turned out to be a fairly even-handed exploration of a variety of disasters in the nuclear age informed by both historical research methodology and a long-form journalist's view of interviews and experiential reporting.

The result is an indictment of the secrecy and shoddy show more procedures surrounding military and civilian nuclear operations over the past 80 years while at the same time acknowledging the potential and possibility of nuclear power. This book isn't an outright rejection of nuclear energy, nor is it an endorsement. Rather it is an accessible and though-provoking addition to the literature around human and environmental impacts rendered by nuclear energy. show less

Fred Pearce has put a great deal of effort into this study of the impact of nuclear radiation on society. This is not a book championing the development of atomic weapons, or detailing the history of the Cold War. Rather it looks at how nuclear testing and accidents have impacted the world.

Pearce travelled the world researching this book, and chapter by chapter he takes us with him as he meets with scientists and ordinary residents in Japan, the U.S., England, and Russia to study the impact of radiation on people's lives and long-term health.

People who want to learn more about the big-picture impact of nuclear weapons and power plants should read this book. It provides a good counterpoint to the vast literature describing the military show more buildup and strategy of nuclear weapons. show less

I was frustrated by two things about this book. First, it is far too short for what it endeavors to cover. Many topics were barely touched, and I felt a bit cheated. It could have been three times as long, and it would have been much better for it.

Second, the author is not consistent with his assessment of the dangers of radiation to humans. In several places, he seems to raise the alarm about people being encouraged to go to "cleaned up" sites that are still contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements, but then he brags about going to contaiminated parts of Russia without the protection of a radiation suit. So you're not okay with going to Rocky Flats, but the exclusion zone from the Kyshtym accident is just fine? Then show more he criticizes the Fukushima exclusion zone because people died from issues surrounding the evacuation and suicide afterwards. So it would have been best to leave people in their homes where they would be exposed to (potentially) harmful radiation rather than risk some of them committing suicide later?

His attitude towards the issue of human exposure to radiation ranges from alarmist to flippant, and this really annoyed me. Some of his arguments were interesting, such as the idea that checking for radiation induced thyroid cancers increased diagnosis for thyroid cancer, because you typically find something when you look for it. Does that mean that radiation from accident X caused your cancer? We'll never know, apparently.

I did appreciate his descriptions about the state of nuclear waste storage around the world. This is truly terrifying that so much waste is just set aside and ignored, costing untold billions of dollars, with no good solution in site. I think this is the number one argument against the nuclear industry. There's nowhere to put the waste.

I think the book could have focused just on nuclear waste and it would have been amazing. In the end, this meandering trip through nuclear issues won't be my first recommendation on the subject, but I'd certainly recommend it to patrons interested in the subject. The book does come with a long list of resources cited, so if you want to learn more, which I definitely appreciate as a librarian. show less

Fred Pearce's Fallout: Disasters, Lies, and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age suffers from a shaky start, but eventually finds its footing to deliver a convincing indictment of nuclear energy policy, the failure to manage reactor disasters, the subsequent coverup of environmental hazards, and the inability or unwillingness to deal with the disposal of the mounting volume of nuclear waste. The early chapters, ostensibly designed ensure that the book covers the totality of the nuclear age beginning with the Manhattan Project the development of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and the testing of nuclear weapons in the western United States during the 1950's, prove far more a needless distraction than a necessary show more prologue. The most offputting aspects of these chapters are the oddly flippant tone and the superficial treatment of broad topics. The author does hit his stride in the chapters covering nuclear power plant disasters, which are compelling. But Pearce again stumbles towards the end in a head-spinning chapter on what may (or may not) constitute safe doses of radiation, as he meanders through assorted scattershot data. Ultimately, Fallout is not "the definitive look at humanity's nuclear adventure" touted on the jacket's back flap, as the subject is far too broad and complex to be adequately covered in this relatively slim volume. But, as noted, there is some value within. show less

Humanity has used the power of nuclear reactions for seven decades, but cleaning up the resulting mess is a skill we haven’t mastered. Fallout is a tour of the mess—literal fallout from weapons tests, as well as contamination from accidents in weapons manufacturing and power generation, plus long-term issues from nuclear waste from both civil and military uses.

Some of the stories are better known than others, but the overall impression is that we’re much better at creating nuclear messes than cleaning them up. The real shocker is how many of the problems we haven’t dealt with yet have been around for decades. In the 1950s, when the US, USSR and UK were racing to build weapons, they neglected safety and ignored the show more retirement/cleanup stage of the lifecycle, and the situation isn’t entirely better now. Some of the residues will be dangerous for centuries, so it’s not a problem that will solve itself.

Except for anti-nuclear environmental activists, most of us don’t think about the lingering cleanup issues except when there’s an emergency. For that reason, Fallout is a helpful addition to the reading list for anyone who wants to understand nuclear policy (both civil and military). It covers a lot of issues in relatively few pages, with plenty of references for readers who want to go deeper. show less