A Conversation with Absinthia, Part 1

Chernobyl

In response to my post about nuclear power plants, Do the Right Thing, my Swedish friend, Absinthia initiated an email conversation, which she has kindly allowed me to share here.  This is the first installment of a multi-part series:

Hi there,

I read your blog about how you feel about nuclear power, and oh my that raced my thoughts and feelings.  I grew up in a small town, where a lot of the employment was at a nuclear plant. I was just seven when I came to the conclusion that no matter what the grown-ups said, nuclear power was just not worth all the risks! We got a pack of pills in the mail every year, that we should take in case something happened. I had nightmares about pill-packs! Pills were so scary, I refused to take any at all until I was more than 20 years old--all because of those yearly iodine pills from the nuclear plant.

I got beaten up at school, because of my anti-nuke opinion. One of the big scary guys had a father who worked at the nuclear plant. This proved to me that nuclear power is scary and violent.

Then we moved from that small town. Guess what happened on the day we moved…the acid rain from Chernobyl rained all over us, and the town we moved to. The amount of radioactivity in that town was highest in all of Europe, except of course the actual town of Chernobyl. This essential piece of information was withheld from us of course, until a year or so later. :-(

So I did did not get to walk in the forest, eat fish, pick mushrooms, or enjoy any other lovely outdoor life for more than 20 years. And I am always scared of what might show up healthwise, since I and the rest of my family ran in and out of that rain for a whole day, carrying furniture in and out of the van.

On the radio, a scientist said that there has been a big increase in cancer because of the Chernobyl rain. In our little town, at least 50 cases.

Guess what, I am still anti-nukes.

The incident in Japan only proved I am right, still. No wise inventions in the world can make nuclear power safe enough for it to be worth the risks.

- Absinthia

(Continued here: A Conversation with Absinthia, Part 2.)