Public Health in a Nuclear Age
UNI409H1-S-L0201 - Spring term 2015
Wednesdays from 3-6 pm, University College
Metta Spencer
The discovery of nuclear fission soon led to nuclear warfare and nuclear testing with deleterious
effects on human health. Besides the risks of nuclear weapons there are safety issues regarding
nuclear power—from mining, processing, and storing fissile materials, as well as the hazards of
reactor explosions, such as at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. Expert opinions
vary as to the gravity and intractability of these dangers. But such nuclear controversies are
related to another threat—the climate changes caused by fossil fuels. If nuclear power is to be
abandoned, what other sources of energy will be used instead? Coal and petroleum? These
fuels exacerbate global warming and carry health risks too. (Carbon in the air kills far more
people than radiation exposure.) Shale gas? (What are the effects of fracking and methane
flaring?) Wind power? (Are there significant health effects from the noise?) To address the
public health issues of nuclear weapons and nuclear power we must weigh them against the
alternatives. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1985 for its work on nuclear weapons as a public health issue. Pugwash won it in
1995. Members of these organizations will join other experts as guest lecturers in this course.
Plan: This class will meet weekly for three hours. I will meet with the class in a closed session
for the first hour. Then at 4:00 we will move into a larger room where each week a guest
lecturer will discuss the topic listed below in this course outline. These talks will be open to the
public. Normally the lecturer will speak for about one hour and then entertain questions and
comments from the audience for a second hour. Your own participation in the class and in the Q
and A session will count for about ten percent of your mark. Before arriving each week, it is
advisable to complete the assigned readings and videos.
Marking Scheme: Marks will be based on:
(a) your participation in the class discussions and the Q and A sessions with the guest
lecturers—worth 10 percent;
(b about eleven multiple-choice quizzes about factual aspects of assignments—each one worth
2 percent (total 22 percent). If you have to miss a quiz, I will assign it a C grade. Try to bring a
smart phone or computer to class each time so you can take a 10-minute quiz, mainly on the
assigned readings and videos.
(c) two video presentations (one on nuclear weapons and the other nuclear power) which your
study group will produce and post on YouTube—each one worth 20 percent. (You will invite
your friends and family to view all three of the videos and send me their remarks and suggested
grades by email; I will take their reactions into account when marking each group’s presentation.
All members of a study group will receive the same mark for their group project.
(d) a paper, not to exceed 2,500 words, due near the end of the course—on “The most
promising approach to solve our nuclear dangers.” — worth 28 percent.
Please email me a photo of yourself and a 100-word bio to help me learn your name and a bit
about your interests and background. Contact me at metta.spencer@utoronto.ca .
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WEEK 1, JAN. 7:
RISK AND THE ORIGINS OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE
Guest Lecturer: Marcin Kuzniak, Ph.D.
Required readings and videos:
• Metta Spencer: “Confronting a Nuclear Age: Risk Assessment in Technology, the
Environment, Economics and Security” video lecture from 2013 on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47DLrGsNvaE
• Beth Gardiner, “We’re All Climate-Change Idiots Now,” New York Times Sunday (Review),
July 22, 2012, p. 12. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/opinion/sunday/were-all-climatechange-idiots.html?_r=1
* Dale Dewar and Florian Oelck, From Hiroshima to Fukushima to You. (Toronto, Between the
Lines, 2014.) Introduction and Chapter 1. (Available as e-book from Indigo) Also see
http://ionizingradiationandyou.blogspot.ca/ If you have questions about nuclear physics, feel
free question Professor. Derek Paul: derekleverpaul@gmail.com , who will call you back.
• Anna Jaikaran, “The Atom and the Bomb: the Discovery of Fission and the Development of
Nuclear Weapons.” video lecture from 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTSxyDcAaOo
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WEEK 2, JAN. 14:
RADIATION’S HEALTH EFFECTS
Guest Lecturer: Cathy Vakil, M.D.
Required readings and videos:
* Dale Dewar and Florian Oelck, From Hiroshima to Fukushima to You. (Toronto, Between the
Lines, 2014.) Chapters 2, 3, 4, 7
• Robert Alvarez, “The Legacy of U.S. Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands,” Huffington Post,
May 23, 2010. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-alvarez/the-legacy-of-usnuclear_b_586524.html
Class Activity: We will form study groups and begin planning for the production of the videos
on nuclear weapons.
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WEEK 3, JAN 21.
NUCLEAR FISSION AND THE SEARCH FOR DEFENCES
Guest Lecturer: Professor John Valleau, University of Toronto
Required readings and videos:
• Jonathan Schell, The Seventh Decade (New York: Henry Holt, 2007). Chapters 2,3,4
(Available as an e-book from Indigo.)
• The Acheson-Lilienthal and Baruch Plans.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/baruch-plans
• “Nuclear Weapons: A Complete Visual History” (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJe7fY-yowk
• “M.A.D. - Mutually Assured Destruction” (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpGeqkLUVGo
• 10 Horrifying Facts About Nuclear Weapons (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgFYApuxZ0E
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WEEK 4, JAN 28.
THE COLD WAR AND NUCLEAR STRATEGIES
Guest Lecturer: Ambassador Marius Grinius
Required readings and videos:
* Dale Dewar and Florian Oelck, From Hiroshima to Fukushima to You. (Toronto, Between the
Lines, 2014.) Chapters 8 and 9
• David Krieger, “Ten Serious Flaws in Nuclear Deterrence Theory,”
http://www.wagingpeace.org/ten-serious-flaws-in-nuclear-deterrence-theory/
“What Does John Oliver Know that You Don’t?” video in “International Day For The Total
Elimination Of Nuclear Weapons” http://scienceforpeace.ca/nuclear
Recommended reading:
• Commander Robert Green. Security Without Nuclear Deterrence. Astron Media, New Zealand,
2010. (You may borrow a copy from the Science for Peace office, room 045 University College.)
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WEEK 5, FEB. 3.
THE CUBAN MISSILE AND OTHER NUCLEAR CRISES
Guest Lecturer: Vinay Jindal, M.D.
Required readings and videos:
• Ten Times We Came Close to Nuclear War (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgFYApuxZ0E
• Walter Dorn, “The Cuban Missile Crisis” video lecture from 2013 on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVbjeHPls6U
• Benjamin Schwartz, “The Real Cuban Missile Crisis,” The Atlantic, Jan-Feb, 2013.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/the-real-cuban-missilecrisis/309190/?single_page=true
• Geoffrey Forden, Pavel Podvig, And Theodore A. Postol, “Colonel Petrov's Good Judgment.”
Peace Magazine, April-June 2001, p. 16. http://peacemagazine.org/archive/v17n2p16.htm/ Also,
see http://peacemagazine.org/archive/v18n3p04.htm
Recommended reading:
• Eric Schlosser, Command and Control (New York: Penguin, 2013). (Available as e-book from
Indigo.)
• Cuban Missile Crisis. Harvard University’s Belfer Center created this web site to commemorate
the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. http://www.cubanmissilecrisis.org/
Class activity: We will watch your video presentations on nuclear weapons.
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WEEK 6, FEB. 11.
PROLIFERATION AND CONTROL ISSUES
Guest Lecturer: Cesar Jaramillo of Project Ploughshares
Required readings and videos:
• Gordon Edwards, “Can We Have a World Free of Nuclear Weapons and Still Have Nuclear
Power?” Video from 2013 available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdwrEucO2UA
• The BBC Film That Exposed Israel's Secret Illegal Nuclear Weapons (Full Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk_6CCZ0gCY
19 June 2012
(Vanunu was released in 2004 but not allowed to leave the country.)
• Ward Wilson, Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2013), Read
from beginning through Myth 2. (Available as e-book from Indigo.)
Recommended reading and videos:
• Jeremy Bernstein, “Pakistan and India: The Nuclear Threat,” The New York Review of Books,
Nov. 21, 2013.
• “Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.” Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferation_of_Nuclear_Weapons
• iCAN Australia, “Nuclear weapons and nuclear power,”
https://web.archive.org/web/20111108060631/http://www.icanw.org/weapons_power
• Melanie Kirkpatrick, “Why we don’t want a nuclear-free world: The Former defense secretary
on the U.S. deterrent and the terrorist threat.” Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124726489588925407.html
• Pervez Hoodbhoy, “What Next: A Sunni Bomb?” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 8
August 2011.
• Jihye Park, Dorota A. Grejner-Brzezinska, and Ralph von Frese, “A New Way to Detect Secret
Nuclear Tests: GPS” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 18 August, 2011.
• Maj. Gen. Bruce Lawlor (ret.) “The Black Sea: Center of the nuclear black market” The Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists 15 December 2011
• William Langewiesche, “The Wrath of Khan,” Atlantic Magazine, November 2005.
Assignments due by Feb. 11: I expect to have received all reports from viewers of your video
presentations about nuclear weapons.
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WEEK 7, FEB. 25.
RETHINKING NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Guest Lecturer: Ms. Martha Goodings
Required readings and videos:
• Ward Wilson, Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons (New York: Mariner, 2014).
Read the rest of the book.
• Mubashir Shehzad, “Truth of Pakistani nuclear bomb & A. Q. Khan,”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjDzRaXE89U
“The Day Clinton Stopped Pakistan from Nuking India,”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CQbxi8T1Cc
Recommended readings:
• Theodore B. Taylor, “Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons,” Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/1996/07/00_taylor_nuclear-power.htm
Class activity: Study groups will begin work on their second video presentation—on nuclear
energy.
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WEEK 8. MARCH 4.
NUCLEAR POWER AND PEACEFUL NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY
Guest Lecturer: Dr. Jeremy Whitlock, Canadian Nuclear
LaboratoriesVedrana
Assigned readings and videos:
• Salim Zwein, “How Thorium Can Save the World,” (TED Talk video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZf6e0ntFrw
• “Thorium: Kirk Sorensen at TEDxYYC” (TED talk video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vzotsvvkw
• Taylor Wilson, “My Radical Plan for Small Nuclear Fission Reactors,”
http://www.ted.com/talks/taylor_wilson_my_radical_plan_for_small_nuclear_fission_reactors.ht
ml
Recommended readings and videos:
• Johannis Noggerath et al, “Fukushima: The myth of safety, the reality of geoscience.” Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists, Sep2011, Vol. 67 Issue 5, p37-4610p, 1 Color Photograph, 1 Chart;
DOI: 10.1177/0096340211421607
• Frank von Hippel, The radiological and psychological consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi
accident. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Sep2011, Vol. 67 Issue 5, p27-3610p, 2 Charts, 1
Graph; DOI: 10.1177/0096340211421588
• Duyeon Kim, Jungmin Kang, Where nuclear safety and security meet. Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, Jan2012, Vol. 68 Issue 1, p86-938p; DOI: 10.1177/0096340211433021
• Allison Macfarlane, It’s 2050: Do you know where your nuclear waste is? Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, Jul2011, Vol. 67 Issue 4, p30-367p; DOI: 10.1177/0096340211413357
• Paul Slovic, The perception gap: Radiation and risk. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
May2012, Vol. 68 Issue 3, p67-759p; DOI: 10.1177/0096340212444870
• Sander Greenland, Underestimating effects: Why causation probabilities need to be replaced
in regulation, policy, and the law. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May2012, Vol. 68 Issue 3,
p76-838.
• World Health Organization: Chernobyl: The true scale of the accident. (summary):
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/index.html
• American Nuclear Society: What happaned and what didn’t in the TMI-2 accident. (Summary)
http://www.new.ans.org/pi/resources/sptopics/tmi/whathappened.php
Tom Davis and Richard Denton, “The Safety of Nuclear Power.” Bibliography for a lecture in the
Confronting a Nuclear Age and Vital Discussions of Human Security lecture series:
http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/the-nuclear-safety-issue.
• Adriana Petryna, “Chernobyl’s survivors: Paralyzed by fatalism or overlooked by science?”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Mar2011, Vol. 67 Issue 2, p30-378p; DOI:
• Martin E. Hellman, “How risky is nuclear optimism?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Mar2011,
Vol. 67 Issue 2, p47-5610p, 2 Color Photographs; DOI: 10.1177/0096340211399873
• John Vidal, “Chernobyl Nuclear Accident: Figures for Deaths and Cancers Still in Dispute,” The
Guardian, Sunday 10 January 2010.
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WEEK 9: MARCH 11:
HEALTH, URANIUM MINING, MANAGING FISSILE MATERIALS
Guest Lecturer: Richard Denton, M.D. of the Northern Ontario
School of Medicine
Assigned readings and videos:
* Dale Dewar and Florian Oelck, From Hiroshima to Fukushima to You. (Toronto, Between the
Lines, 2014.) Chapter 7
• “Uranium Mining in Saskatchewan,” (Government of Saskatchewan blurb)
http://www.gov.sk.ca/Default.aspx?DN=b9b373d2-47fb-4d75-a009-46ac566381f1
• IPPNW Factsheet Uranium Mining 4
http://www.ippnw.org/pdf/uranium-factsheet4.pdf
Class Activity: Study groups work on video presentation.
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WEEK 10, MAR. 18:
NUCLEAR ENERGY’S FUTURE: ITS SAFETY & ENVIRONMENT
Guest Lecturer: Professor John Luxat of McMaster University
Required readings and videos:
* Dale Dewar and Florian Oelck, From Hiroshima to Fukushima to You. (Toronto, Between the
Lines, 2014.) Chapters 5, 6 and 8
• Shawn-Patrick Stensil, “Lessons from Fukushima: Implications for International Nuclear
Safety,” Video from 2013. Science for Peace web site
http://www.youtube.com/user/Science4Peace
• Gwynne Dyer, “Fusion Power.” http://gwynnedyer.com/2014/fusion-power/
• “A Working Nuclear Fusion Reactor In Three Years? Really?” Forbes, Oct 17, 2014
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/10/17/a-working-nuclear-fusion-reactor-in-threeyears-really/
Recommended readings and videos:
• Michael McNamee, “Thorium Technology,” (Science for Peace video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw5fmMb5q_U&list=UU6rh_qo4JtrDOJeZ9eXeT3Q
Assignment due Mar 18: Both video presentations should be up on YouTube. We will watch
them in class. I should receive all responses from your friends and relatives by March 25.
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WEEK 11, MARCH 25.
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: FINANCE, ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH
Guest Lecturer: Professor José Etcheverry, York University
Assigned readings and videos:
• Mark Jacobson, “A Plan to Power 100 Percent of the Planet with Renewables,” Video from
2013 on Science for Peace web page and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrag_FkFaXk
• “16x9 - Untested Science: Fracking natural gas controversy”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEHz8SSfFJs
• Kent Moors, “New Algae Research May Have Uncovered an ‘Energy Forest’ under the Sea,”
http://oilandenergyinvestor.com/2014/11/new-algae-research-may-uncovered-energy-forestsea/#deeplink
• Metta Spencer, “How to Change the World in a Hurry,” (video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_aJB7u_W_8&list=LL6rh_qo4JtrDOJeZ9eXeT3Q
Recommended readings and videos:
• Thomas Homer-Dixon, “We’re Fracking to Stand Still,” The Globe and Mail, Dec. 20, 2013.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/fracking-to-stand-still/article16055482/
• Stanford Ovshinsky: Pursuing solar electricity at a cost equal to or lower than that of coal
electricity. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May2011, Vol. 67 Issue 3, p1-77p; DOI:
10.1177/0096340211406877
• IEA (29 May 2012) (PDF). Golden Rules for a Golden Age of Gas. World Energy Outlook
Special Report on Unconventional Gas. OECD. pp. 18–27.
• Eja Pedersen, Kerstin Persson Waye, “Wind turbine noise, annoyance and self-reported health
and well-being in different living environments,” Occup Environ Med 2007;64:480-486
doi:10.1136/oem.2006.031039
• Peter A. Bradford, The nuclear renaissance meets economic reality. Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists, Nov 2009, Vol. 65 Issue 6, p60-645p
Assignment: Your essay, “The most promising approach to solve our nuclear dangers,” is due
March 23. (No more than 2,500 words.)
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WEEK 12, APRIL 1:
NUCLEAR ACTIVISM: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
Guest Lecturer: Neil Arya, M.D., McMaster University
Required readings and videos:
• David Keith lecture on TVO’s “Big Ideas”:
http://bigideas.tvo.org/episode/141079/david-keith-on-technology-energy-and-nature
• Vinay Jindal video from 2013 on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5qNcLCAzpc
• Lawrence Wittner, A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTmT2tmZSJk
• iCan, “A Nuclear Weapons Convention,”
https://web.archive.org/web/20120330161154/http://www.icanw.org/nuclear-weaponsconvention