The half lie of the Dragon's Tail

Now we get the publicity plug for Australia's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. From this presentation, you'd imagine that the sole purpose of this reactor is to benefit medicine. In fact the original purposes of the reactor were to further the nuclear weapons and nuclear power industries. The first Hifar reactor was built in the 60s as a research reactor. The radio pharmaceuticals facility was literally tacked on at the end of the reactor. In the long term, a linear accelerator would turn out to be more efficient and economic for this purpose, when the full costs of the nuclear reactor, waste disposal included, are counted.

Muller makes a light and amusing story on the first isotope "Molly 99" and the process of obtaining from "her" - technetium 99 -a "life -saving medicine". But no, it's not. It is used to help diagnose cancer - not cure or even treat it. So he glosses over the nuclear reactor and its waste problems, managing to get a laugh with a suitable ex-footballer cancer patient.

Returning to the theme of low dose radiation, Muller interviews Professor Geraldine Thomas. She gives a comforting story about how quickly radioactive iodine disappears from the environment, and she completely ignores other radioactive isotopes. "More people died from falling out of bed every year in UK, than died from Chernobyl radiation".

Both Muller and Thomas point out the difficulty of detecting causes of cancer, and conclude that there is "no persuasive evidence of any health effects from Chernobyl radiation".

They are following the nuclear lobby's spin, in completely ignoring the work of Russian scientists Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko, whose mammoth study on Chernobyl concluded that "A more accurate number estimates nearly 400 million human beings have been exposed to Chernobyl's radioactive fallout and, for many generations, they and their descendants will suffer the devastating consequences."

The authors argued that the global death toll by 2004 was closer to 1 million and said health effects included birth defects, pregnancy losses, accelerated aging, brain damage, heart, endocrine, kidney, gastrointestinal and lung diseases.

Professor Thomas reassures us that "a small amount of radiation exposure is OK" "We are extremely well adapted to a low dose radiation environment". Apart from Thomas' dismissive account of exposure to radioactive iodine, there is absolutely no mention of the effects of internal emitters of radiation - that is, the radioactive isotopes breathed in or ingested, that can sit in a body's organs for years, decades, emitting high dose gamma radiation.

Moving on to the Fukushima nuclear accident, we are told that the psychological effects are the serious ones. What a great piece of spin this is! Of course the psychological effects are extremely serious. Wouldn't you be worried, if you were a pregnant woman, or if you feared that your child might later get leukaemia, because you decided to return to a radioactive environment? It is the reality of increased risk of fatal illness that accentuates the other disastrous consequences of that accident.

Prof Thomas assures us "The most important studies will be those on the mental effects". In the context of this documentary, that just makes me envisage more documentaries like this one - with more spin about how we mustn't worry about ionising radiation.

The presenter, Derek Muller emphasises and repeats "not one death from Fukushima radiation - not one!" Yet in scholarly articles, we learn that "Cancer deaths due to accumulated radiation exposures cannot be ruled out". Caracappa, Peter F. (28 June 2011), "Fukushima Accident: Radioactive Releases and Potential Dose Consequences" (PDF), ANS Annual Meeting, retrieved 13 September 2011

Inevitably, we move on to the real core of the message - the wonderful new nuclear reactors. We meet the young and personable, Dr Leslie Dewan, who graduated not that long ago in Nuclear Science and Engineering, and now she is CEO of Transatomic Power, which plans to build its first demonstration Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor in 2020. (Transatomic Power has probably put in a submission to the South Australian Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission. But we don't know, because commercial submissions don't have to be published).

The documentary appeared in Australia at a very convenient time for the South Australian Royal Commission. Dr Muller often covers his back with remarks about nuclear weapons "the most savage thing that man has ever built" and like his "feeling that renewables are going so fast - perhaps we can use alternatives". But ultimately, his is a message of confidence in nuclear power. He says "Every year uranium saves more lives than it has ever destroyed" Really? Where are the facts to back up these kinds of statements? And all is spoken with guru like solemnity, and the backing of soaring holy choral music