Nuclear powered electricity does not contribute to global warming or pollution.

Helen Caldicott disputes the above statement. She calls it a myth which is spread by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) in the U.S.A. She writes that the NEI spends millions of dollars annually to engineer public opinion.

"Nuclear power is not 'clean and green' as the industry claims", she writes, "because large amounts of traditional fossil fuels are required to mine and refine the uranium needed to run nuclear power reactors." Large amounts of fossil fuel are needed to construct the massive concrete reactor buildings, and to transport and store the toxic radioactive waste created by the nuclear process. Burning of this fossil fuel emits significant quantities of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere"

While the carbon dioxide currently produced by nuclear energy is only one-third of the amount emitted from a similar-sized gas conventional generator, this is a transitory statistic, says Dr. Caldicott. "Over several decades, as the concentration of available uranium ore declines, more fossil fuels will be required to extract the ore from less concentrated ore veins."

Dr. Caldicott continues that when the nuclear industry presents the cost of nuclear power they fail to include all the costs involved. For example, "the industry says that nuclear power costs only 1.7 cents per kilowatt hour, whereas coal costs 2 cents and gas-fired power cost 5.7 cents. But these figures apply only to nuclear energy generated from existing nuclear reactors. They represent a classic omission of capital cost from a pricing equation".

The author is a leading spokesperson for the antinuclear movement and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee as well as the recipient of the 2003 Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom. Although trained as a physician, she writes in language understandable to the layman. This is an important book which presents the other side of the "spin".