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 buildup and strategy of nuclear weapons.

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 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. ( )

This is a well-researched, well-reasoned, even-handed review of the major nuclear disasters and the stories behind them that aren't very well known or understood. Some of the disasters are the ones that you have heard of and know very well, while others are not so well-known. ( )

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 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 ( )

Fred Pearce casts a fairly wide net in this short (a little over 200 pages of text) and easy to read look at the different aspects of "fallout" in the nuclear age. Initially he talks about the fallout from nuclear bomb testing and the runaway production of plutonium for weapons manufacturing. Then he moves on to the fallout from accidents from nuclear power production, particularly Chernobyl and Fukushima. And finally he looks at the fallout from all the waste that is left behind, and what the options are for dealing with it.

I was intrigued by this book not only for its subject matter, but because I had read another of Pearce's books, [b:The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature's Salvation|22716462|The New Wild Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature's Salvation|Fred Pearce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1408929384s/22716462.jpg|42243715], where he presented some rather unconventional ideas. And [b:Fallout|35458104|Fallout Disasters, Lies, and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age|Fred Pearce|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1501488682s/35458104.jpg|56848409] is similar in his unconventional ideas. He questions whether our fear of radioactivity is rational or not, suggesting that the tolerance of the human body is actually much higher than we acknowledge. He cites statistics where cancers are not as prevalent as we have come to expect in radioactive areas (or where the reporting may be skewing statistics by purposefully looking for cancers that might otherwise have gone unreported). I also found his discussion of the disposal options to be very enlightening. And through it all runs a consistent current of lies and cover ups by government and those who are charged with protecting the public health and interest. If there's one thing you can count on, according to this narrative, it's that the the gov't or public agencies will initially deny and minimize the true scope of any danger, and then end up bungling the response when it finally comes.

Personally, I found the book to be a very enjoyable read, if sometimes a little unsettling. Pearce has a way of making the topic not only readable but understandable as well. At first I was reminded of [b:Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America|600462|Survival City Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America|Tom Vanderbilt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347848973s/600462.jpg|587061] with his looks at the testing sites and the downwind effects. But then he shifted gears and I was reminded of [b:Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation|15798109|Toms River A Story of Science and Salvation|Dan Fagin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1360096482s/15798109.jpg|21521027], and just how difficult it is for scientists to conclusively prove cause and effect when it comes to cancer-causing agents. But his discussion of the magnitude of the problem with dealing with the waste was eye-opening to me - and it's never as simple and cut-and-dried as the opponents and proponents of nuclear power would have you believe. A very interesting read! (I received a copy of the book from the publisher.) ( )