Jimmy Carter's experience with Canadian reactor accident shaped knowledge of nuclear issues: book

[CHIMO]

There was a crippled nuclear reactor, contaminated water everywhere and teams of heroic workers clad in protective suits assigned to the life-risking task of radiation cleanup — in shifts of no more than 90 seconds per man.

But this was not Fukushima, the site of the tsunami-triggered nuclear emergency 240 kilometres north of Tokyo, where three workers died as a result of the initial March 11 earthquake and three others were reported this weekend to have suffered severe radiation exposure.

This crisis occurred in 1952 at the Chalk River research reactor about 200 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, and among those who risked their lives to contain what was then the world's first major atomic accident was a young naval lieutenant and future U.S. president: Jimmy Carter.

Carter's memories of the Canadian crisis almost 60 years ago — an event that he says helped shape his understanding of nuclear issues, including arms negotiations and the Three Mile Island disaster during his presidency — are set down in a new book to be launched this month that highlights the 86-year-old statesman's special relationship with Canada.

http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=4557990&sponsor=

[PDJane]

1. Yep.

And those accidents will occur about once every 25 years or so if we continue to use nuclear power. It's a bad idea.

[applegrove]

2. I'd love that book. I'm Canadian.