Author Description

We are in the second century of "Nuclear Age". It started in early 20th century with a brilliant development of human knowledge about the basis of the existence in this universe: atom, nucleus, and elementary particles. The second stage of nuclear age was the applications of such knowledge. First "nuclear fission reaction" was applied to a military purpose, that is, to create an enormously powerful weapon: the atomic bomb. Then a huge amount of heat produced by nuclear fission reaction was applied to produce electricity, the so-called peaceful use of atom. During the second half of 20th century, the "nuclear industry" grew and established its power over human civilization. Now we are in the third phase of the nuclear age. The evilness of the military application of the "nuclear" energy is well recognized and its abolishment is desired by all, as we are now facing the danger of our annihilation, due to political reasons. The other aspect of the "nuclear" use is the so-called "peaceful" one:, nuclear power production of electricity. The nuclear industry is promoting, and the majority of people still believe in, the peaceful use of nuclear power. The third phase of the "nuclear age" started as soon as the nuclear industry was created, but has become more and more obvious in recent decades, mostly due to the severe accidents of nuclear power plants (NPP), such as Three Mile Island NPP in USA (1979), Chernobyl NPP in USSR (today's Ukraine, 1986) and Fukushima NPP in Japan (2011). The basic problem is "radiation" produced by the nuclear industry. Its effects on human health (and other organisms) are subtle but devastating. This book is designed to tell what serious health problems due to radiation have been observed all over the world, why radiation is so seriously dangerous, and how people including scientists, the industry and the government controlled by the industry are behaving toward radiation issues. The basic tenet coming out of this treatment is "Radiation (of hi