The Doomsday Machine: The High Price of Nuclear Energy, the World's Most Dangerous Fuel

Today, there are over one hundred nuclear reactors operating in our backyards, from Indian Point in New York to Diablo Canyon in California. Proponents claim that nuclear power is the only viable alternative to fossil fuels, and due to rising energy consumption and the looming threat of global warming, they are pushing for an even greater investment. Here, energy economist Andrew McKillop and social scientist Martin Cohen argue that the nuclear power dream being sold to us is pure fantasy. Debunking the multilayered myth that nuclear energy is cheap, clean, and safe, they demonstrate how landscapes are ravaged in search of the elusive yellowcake to fuel the reactors, and how energy companies and politicians rarely discuss the true costs of nuclear power plants€”from the subsidies that build the infrastructure to the unspoken that the public will pick up the cleanup cost in the event of a meltdown, which can easily top $100 billion dollars.

Martin Cohen is a philosopher of social science and the author of several books, translated into over twenty languages, including Mind Games and Philosophy for Dummies. A respected environmentalist, he wrote an influential series of articles in the Times Higher (London) about the politics of the climate change debate. He has written discussion papers on environmental concerns for the European Parliament and been invited by the Chinese government to discuss ecological rights and indigenous communities.

Andrew McKillop has worked for thirty years as an energy economist and consultant. He is involved in plans to redraw the energy map of Europe and is the former chief policy analyst for the European Commission's Energy Directorate. McKillop has been published in The Ecologist, New Scientist, and International Journal of Energy Research, among others. He has spoken at conferences across the country, including Petrocollapse in New York and EcoCity in San Francisco, and he is a founding member of the International Association for Energy Economics, which holds an annual conference in the United States. McKillop currently runs an energy consultancy and lives in Vannes, France.