Beyond Nuclear and Gender and Radiation Impact Project present an expert briefing: What Scientists Are Telling Us About Radiation that Nuclear Boosters Won't
February 20, 2025 @ noon eastern, join us for a webinar:
What Scientists Are Telling Us About Radiation that Nuclear Boosters Won't
In Their Rush to Expand, Nuclear Interests Ignore and Suppress Evidence of Radiation’s Harms, Including Worse Impacts on Women and Children
Contacts:
Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988
Mary Olson, olson.mary@gmail.com, 828-242-5621
Registration (required) link
WHAT? On February 20 a webinar sponsored by the NGO Gender + Radiation Impact Project will feature leading experts on the impacts of radiation from nuclear technologies who will speak and answer questions about the current state of science concerning harmful impacts of the nuclear energy and weapons industries. A growing body of evidence reveals radiation contamination in our environment disproportionately impacts women and young children.
Those arguing for expanding nuclear power and weapons production pointedly ignore and contradict evidence of their harms -- part of a pattern of suppression that goes back to the dawn of the nuclear age a century ago. Scientists who revealed radiation’s harmful impacts were pilloried and had their funding and data seized.
The pattern of suppression still holds today, but with the rush toward nuclear-powered AI centers and a new nuclear arms race looming, it has kicked into high gear. False claims and preposterous talk points from the nuclear industry are increasingly and uncritically repeated without challenge. For a quick, sourced primer on these issues, see the recent oped “They won’t tell you these truths about nuclear energy” in The Hill.
The February 20 webinar features the oped’s authors and other experts. It will present a current, evidence-based view of nuclear’s harms as a contribution toward correcting the record.
It will also preview the upcoming conference of states parties to the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the United Nations in New York, where these experts will speak and present their work.
WHO? The following experts on harmful impacts of the nuclear power and weapons industries will speak and answer questions at the February 20 webinar and are available for side interviews on request.
Cindy Folkers is the radiation and health hazard specialist at the NGO Beyond Nuclear, and co-author with Ian Fairlie of the new book The Scientists who Alerted us to the Dangers of Radiation. She co-authored the recent oped on concealing nuclear harms in The Hill.
Amanda M. Nichols, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California Santa Barbara, and Managing Editor of the peer-reviewed Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture. She co-authored the recent oped on concealing nuclear harms in The Hill, and the new UNIDIR study “Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm” and will present at the upcoming Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the the UN in New York on March 5.
Mary Olson (moderating) is the co-founder of the Gender + Radiation Impact Project. The longtime staff biologist and policy analyst at Nuclear Information and Resource Service (1991-2019), she studied radiation health consequences with the world’s leading radiation researchers, and published peer-reviewed papers on gender and radiation impacts (Olson 2019). Following her many presentations on the subject at UN and other international fora, reference to gender and radiation impacts was incorporated into the preamble to the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), forming a basis for the jurisdiction of humanitarian law, under which the Treaty is written. Olson is co-author of the new UNIDIR study “Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm” and will present at the upcoming Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the UN in New York March 5.
WHEN & WHERE? The webinar “What Scientists Are Telling Us About Radiation that Nuclear Boosters Won’t” takes place on Zoom Thursday, February 20 at noon Eastern time. It is free and open to the public. Journalists and bloggers are invited to attend and cover, and can ask questions in real time. Registration is quick, easy, and required. To register, please use this link. For further information please contact Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988, or Mary Olson, olson.mary@gmail.com, 828-242-5621.