DANGER FROM RADIOACTIVITY

Dangers from Redioactive fallout and contamination has remained a hot topic, since the days of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They say that familiarity breeds contempt. With so much being written, most people now tend to push the subject away after scanning the headlines. Perhaps a few who are not yet familiar with the subject and few others interested in the theoretical side of the content care to read such articles.
Even those of us who understand the science of it, tend to push the subject under the carpet and avoid getting involved in a heavy subject. After all in the last 70 years no catastrophe has taken place : humanity is still alive, so why bother so much.Its like people getting complacent living atop a volcanic zone, when the volcano has remained dorment for a long; though fully aware at the back of their mind that the sleeping volcano will some day again erupt.
Today nations are going overboard adopting the nuclear option, as a sorce of energy, which at first sight looks so attractive as a replacement to environment degrading fossil fuels.Nothing is far from the truth. We are infact trading away one danger for a far far greater one. One against which humanity has no defence.The crisis from burning of fossil fuel has taken few centuries to crystallise into a life theatrening situation. And may be with sane and unified action a part of humanity will survive this crisis, during this century. Use of nuclear energy is not amongst the Sane actions I am talking of, it is infact just the opposite: Insane. If the use of nuclear fuel proliferate, we may have to come face to face with posssibility of partial or total Extiction of life on Earth, within a century or may be even less. May be a US President can survive with his few aids and specimen of a few men and women, in the elaborate bunkers, dug under some remote mountain for a few years, required for the radioactivity to come down to tolerable levels. Though even that will be very difficult and likely to fail. For rest of Humanity and Animal life, there would be no chance of survival, if the fallout is very high.
The decision makers of many leading nations who are advocating use of Nuclear fuel are infact Advocates for Extermination of Life. The life that has been created over billions of years in this rare planet, can get exterminated in a flash (so to speak), if any largescale accident takes place. This can happen from spilling of underground stored Spent Fuel in an volcanic erruption or in an earthquake, enemy rockets destroying a chain of Nuclear insallations, a Mateor falling on a Large Nuclear Power plant or from starting of an uncontrollable nuclear war (despite all calculated safety norms). There is no objection in use of this energy source in small scales like in long distance submarines, long life space stations and rockets, in reaserch centres or for medical purpose etc. We may even need large H-Bombs to destroy or divert large chunks of Meteors that might come our way or for mining in other planets or other future unforeseen purposes. The Nuclear reactor or bomb technologies are not to be maligned. But concentration and large scale use of redioactive material on Earth,s surface must be avided at all cost.

For those who are unable to visualise the true nature of the calamity that may be awaiting us, I recommend them to read a beautiful novel named 'ON THE BEACH' by Nevil Shute, written after the 2nd world war. ( I caution -Not to be read by people in a depressed or weak state of mind). It should not be considered as an old book. It is and will remain contemporary forever; as long as humans live. It might lead to nightmares, might bring one face to face with abyss of loneliness, but it is worth it. Nevil Shute is a master writter and one is not likely to forget lessons from the book ever.

Endless bounty of life nurturing Sunlight is passing by us untapped. The wind, the sea waves and the flowing waters of great rivers are all there to fill the gap, till the time scintists are able to harness the non-polluting eternal souce of FUSION POWER, in the foreseeble future. The required technology is also there which has also become cost effective now. Yet nations including our own are opting for the Kiss Of Death. Call it Fatal Attraction or Death Wish.

The environmental challege placed by nature in our path of progress is not only a challege of finding Energy Souce; it is much deeper. The world has been put into a situation where we have no other option, but to take unified action as one body. Responsibility, not only for survival and progress of Human- Beings, but for all life forms; the total Genetic pool on Earth is sqarely on us. The ball is now in our court. We have to outgrow from the shakles of cvonventional religions tenets, which might hamper our decision making. Let this be a second Rennaisance for humanity. Without being a truly scintificaly oriented civilisation we cannot survive. We have to replace the God of various religions, with the common man's God, which is nothing other than the power and wonder of Nature. Persuing pure science or mathematics gives as much understanding of the God of Nature, as a precher or purohit feels. This God understand only the language of reason. This God has now given us an independent brain with enough intelligence and has put the challege of survival before us.It is upto us, whether to prosper into a space faring civilisation or to destry ourselves.