Mother Country

The world's largest source of radioactive contamination, Sellafield continues as an accident-prone, poorly maintained operation, polluting without genuine safety standards, winked at by international watchdogs, violating decency and common sense. The risk enlarges as countries permit the transport of both wastes and reconstituted materials by plane, by ship, by truck. "The greatest threat to show more the world," Robinson writes, is riot "a decision still to be made. . .the decision to engage in nuclear warfare. Sadly, the troth is quite otherwise. The earth has been under nuclear attack for almost half a century." Robinson reserves her few sanguine words for the final paragraph, enjoining others to recognize the menace, to name and confront "the grosser forms of evil" encountered here. A gravely unsettling book. show less