In starting this group, we aim to engage the public, the media, and politicians in a healthy discussion about the role of nuclear energy. The need for an evidence-based approach to fight climate change is more pressing than ever. The need to eliminate air pollution is immediate. Yet physician organizations have often taken a negative view of nuclear energy.
Valid concerns about nuclear weapons gave way to unfounded accusations about civilian nuclear energy as groups like Physicians for Global Survival and Physicians for Social Responsibility fear-mongered against the world's most scalable form of clean electricity.
These groups have abused their credibility as healthcare providers to sow fear of low-dose radiation, cause public panic and anxiety, and achieve an anti-science agenda to kill nuclear energy.
The loudest and most influential physician voice has been that of Helen Caldicott. Her misrepresentation of medical and scientific literature in her crusade against nuclear energy is well-documented. Journalist George Monbiot described her tactics:
“Failing to provide sources, refuting data with anecdote, cherry-picking studies, scorning the scientific consensus, invoking a cover-up to explain it: all this is horribly familiar. These are the habits of climate-change deniers, against which the green movement has struggled valiantly, calling science to its aid. It is distressing to discover that when the facts don’t suit them, members of this movement resort to the follies they have denounced.”
It is time that a physician organization take an evidence-based stand against these decades of unchecked anti-nuclearism.
All energy sources have drawbacks. Without exception, they require the mining of materials and the use of machinery that eventually wears out. However, we believe that nuclear energy is among the best available options, and it is indeed irreplaceable in the fight against climate change. It the most scalable and reliable energy source with a proven ability for rapid, deep decarbonization. Per terawatt-hour of energy produced, it is also one of the safest.
The harms from civilian nuclear reactor accidents are vanishingly small compared to the daily death toll from carbon-emitting energy sources such as natural gas, coal, and biomass. We base this opinion on facts established by respected scientific bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).
We look forward to engaging. Feel free to contact us: https://www.doctorsfornuclearenergy.org/action
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