Fairewinds Talks With EON
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Filmed by Ecological Options Network (EON), Fairewinds is excited to share a conversation between EON’s co-directors Mary Beth Brangan, and Jim Heddle with Fairewinds Energy Education’s president and founder Maggie Gundersen and Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen at Point Reyes Station in California. In this “Tell All”, Maggie and Arnie discuss their lives as former nuclear energy insiders, the lies they were told and led to believe, and the subsequent impact of speaking truth to power as whistleblowers. Now, as consultants and educators about the risk of atomic power and its radiation leaks, Maggie and Arnie talk about their role in uncovering the operating risks the San Onofre atomic reactor that necessitated its shutdown. They also share insight of the operating risks at Diablo Canyon, California’s “Last Nuke Standing”. This speaking panel is one of a series based on Fairewinds’ recent speaking tour in California.
Disproving what critics of the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) Risk Model have claimed and also disproving the theory of hormesis (that radiation doses are good for you), Ian Goddard has compiled solid research on the incidence of cancer in relationship to radioactive dose exposure. Goddard based his research on well established reports and peer reviewed data from the National Library of Medicine, and he shares this information in an easy to follow fashion in this video.
Although the LNT model is favored by the National Academy of Science, the LNT model has been disputed by zealots, who promote nuclear power, and who propose there is a threshold of 100 microsieverts or below of radiation dose at which that there is no risk of cancer when people are exposed to radioactivity at this level.
Some of these atomic proponents and LNT critics even promote the controversial theory of hormesis that claims low doses of radiation decreases the risk of cancer. In 2006, the Beir VII report titled, “Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation” examined solid cancer data from atomic bomb survivors and found the incidence of cancer to best fit the LNT model. By taking a look at epidemiological studies of the past decade with dose point graphs within the disputed region of 0-100 microsieverts, Goddard concludes from his collective graph that these reports best fit the LNT model, and that this relationship between cancer to radiation dose most likely reflects the causal relationship.
Marie Granmar, Charles Sacilotto and their young son invited Fair Companies to their “Naturhus” (or Nature House), their environmentally friendly house located just outside of Stockholm Sweden that's surrounded by 4-millimeter panes of glass. Withstanding average January temperatures around 27 degrees Fahrenheit, this house-within-a-greenhouse is kept warm by the sun throughout the day with residual heat stored in the bedrock below the house for cold winter nights. Rainwater is collected for household needs as well as for watering plants, and kitchen and garden waste is composted. Inspired by Swedish eco-architect Bengt Warne, who was also homeowner Charles Sacilotto’s mentor, this house even includes its very own sewage system. As mentioned by Fairewinds’ president Maggie Gundersen in her most recent Demystifying Blog post, according to Fair Companies, “the sewage system begins with a urine-separating toilet and uses centrifuges, cisterns, grow beds and garden ponds to filter the water and compost the remains.” Watch this video and see for yourself how possible it is live green and sustainably in a four season climate with cold winters!
