:: gia’s blog ::

I’ve been pinged for a ‘green meme’ in a blog post entitled ‘The Greenscam Part II’. I’m supposed to “write about the ways in which [I’m] consciously “green”, and also the things [I] know [I] should do in a more ecologically friendly way but don’t.”

First, what I find interesting is how being green has become fashionable. Bruce Sterling’s ‘Viridian Manifesto‘, which when I read it was one of of those ‘wow!’ moments, was the first time I ever heard anyone say that being ‘green’ required the wealthy to find it a desirable way to live. He suggested that energy meters needed to be seen as ‘luxurious’, solar and wind power should be sold at a premium to only those who can afford it and that ‘fouling the air’ when we turn on a light “should be considered the stigma of the crass proletarian”. (When I met Bruce Sterling at LIFT a couple years ago, I told him how important the Viridian Manifesto was to me. A year after that, he and I talked about nuclear power for which he is a supporter, albeit a reluctant one.)

I’m not new to the whole environmental thing, which is why when I’ve been attacked and talked to like an idiot by people when talking about green issues it really makes me angry. It also makes me angry when people who hardly know me, and certainly don’t listen to me, claim that I have ‘entrenched beliefs’ because I support nuclear power. Actually, I’ve been told that when you look in the dictionary for ‘un-entrenched beliefs’ there’s just a picture of me there. I’ve not seen that myself, but it sounds right. I am ALL ABOUT questioning ‘beliefs’ which means that my views change. I allow them to change based on facts and information I learn. What I don’t do is blindly follow something I heard 30 years ago, continue to believe it without question and only look to other believers for information which validates my belief. That’s “religion”. [Read more]

It seems that everyone’s going mental about the fact that we’re going to get some new nuclear power plants built in the UK. Apart from believing the inaccurate information relayed by the media, I suspect the reason some people are against nuclear power is that they don’t understand things like risk or radiation.

I thought I would use the opportunity to re-post some of the articles I wrote for the Potential Energy project I did 18 months ago (Here are all of my articles)

This one is about RADIATION and was originally posted here on May 30, 2006.

Radiation is the one thing that scares most people about the whole idea of “nuclear”. Radiation Sickness, Radiation Burns, Radioactive Fallout… Again, I think most people’s ideas about “nuclear” were formed during the Cold War when, quite rightly, we all had a lot to fear from the threat of nuclear war. Let’s all just get one thing straight:

Nuclear Power Is Not Nuclear War.

They are as different as Jedis and Siths in ‘Star Wars’. Both Jedis and Siths use the Force. Jedis use it for good, Siths use it for evil. The Force itself is not inherently evil nor inherently good. Likewise, nuclear fission itself is not a moral nor immoral process. To approach it as anything other than amoral is as daft as believing there is some innate goodness or badness in ‘water’.

Anyway, the question ‘what exactly is radiation’ was top of my mind over the bank holiday weekend as my husband- a high-energy particle physicist at CERN- and I wandered around picturesque villages in the Pennines. While downing pints in the pub he gave me a first year physics course on radiation. This is what I learned:

Very basically, radiation is energy that is emitted in the form of electromagnetic waves or particles. There are lots of different types of radiation that you may have heard of: Solar Radiation, Thermal Radiation, Cosmic Radiation, Hawking Radiation… The most well-known kind of radiation, however, is Electromagnetic Radiation.

Electromagnetic Radiation is what allows you to listen to the radio or to quickly cook your food in your microwave oven as Radio Waves and Microwaves are on the low frequency end of the Electromagnetic Radiation spectrum.

Another type of Electromagnetic Radiation is Light - Infrared, Visible and Ultraviolet Light. Visible light is, of course, the light we see, Infrared is the type of light used in night vision equipment and Ultraviolet light is what tans our skin when we are outside.

If you’ve ever had an Xray at the doctor or the dentist, you’ve been bombarded with Electromagnetic Radiation. Xrays pass through the soft tissues of your body, but are blocked by dense tissues such as teeth or bones.

The highest frequency Electromagnetic Radiation is called Gamma Rays. Gamma Rays are produced in PET scans, astrophysical phenomena such as Gamma Ray bursts or in radioactive decay.

It’s important to point out that the boundary between what one calls Xrays and what one calls Gamma Rays can be vague - for example, a photon with an energy of 10 keV can be called either an Xray or a Gamma Ray. ALL types of Electromagnetic Radiation are photons, the only difference being the amount of energy carried by the photon.

For our purposes the only other types of radiation we need to be concerned with are Alpha Radiation, Beta Radiation and Neutron Radiation- all occur as result of nuclear fission either natural or man-made.

Alpha Radiation is essentially the same as a helium atom. The only difference being it doesn’t have any electrons. It only travels a few centimetres in the air and can be stopped by a piece of tissue paper.

Beta Radiation is the release of an electron from a neutron rich element. They have a range of a few metres in the air and can be stopped by a few millimetres of aluminium.

Neutron Radiation is made up of ‘free’ neutrons. It is a concern as it is very good at making almost everything it encounters radioactive. Neutron radiation is very penetrating, but can be shielded by water, plastic, borated metals, and concrete. No little animation, I’m afraid.

We are all immersed in naturally occurring radiation- from the buildings we live and work in, the food we eat, Cosmic Rays from space, medical treatments. Radon Gas makes up the majority of our annual radiation dose.

The levels of Radon Gas fluctuates depending on things like the geological make-up of the area or whether you open your windows or not. Simply by spending two weeks on holiday in Cornwall, you will receive more radiation in a year than you would living next to a nuclear power plant.

Too much radiation, as we all know, can be harmful…. but how much is ‘too much’ and do the different types of radiation have different effects on our bodies? My next post I will look into the effects of radiation on the human body.

Also read: Half-Term Half-Life and Kylie, Cornwall or Reactor Cores?.

On first thought, I’d say that 2007 was fairly uneventful. My past few months have consisted of me being ill and feeling like I’ve done very little other than try and get healthy again… Then, when I properly think about it, I realise that the whole year has been MENTAL!

January

Me and Charlie Brooker

I was doing lots of stuff for Sunshine and Channel4.com, saw Ben Folds in concert, the Sunshine trailer was leaked by resourceful fans and I was interviewed for Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe.

February

/Cat blog

MASSIVE Sunshine stuff, loads of Channel 4 stuff, went to LIFT where Brian spoke and my Screepwipe interview was broadcast.

Watch Video

March

Danny Boyle on the Sunshine set

I know the photo above wasn’t taken in March, but the month was so freakin’ mental I didn’t take any photos. I was doing 7 days a week, 18 hour days mainly for Sunshine- press and bloggers’ screenings, press interviews, cast and crew screening, Manchester screening, messageboards, emails, IMDB, generally mentalness. There was also Channel 4 stuff, a discussion I took part in at the ICA, went to Cambridge with Brian who spoke at their Science Festival… and I’ve also got ‘Milton Keynes’ in my diary on the 16th. I’ve got no memory of what that was about at all.

April

Danny Boyle, Cillian Murphy, Brian

Another insane month. Sunshine was released, screening and Q&A with Danny at the Ritzy cinema, trip to Russia for the premiere, the 28 Weeks Later premiere… and I bought some ‘Sunshine’ props and costumes. :)

May

Tiger in my face

My Sunshine props and costumes were delivered. :) Was starting to get properly frustrated with the Channel 4 stuff, was weaning off Sunshine, I went to the Arthur C. Clarke Awards nominations, did a Social Media Club photo walk with Lloyd, went to Anna and Julian’s wedding and started looking at secondary schools for my son.

June

Brian at the Star Wars exhibition

Trying to get back into life and recover generally from Sunshine insanity. Sunshine was at the IMAX, spoke at Music Tank, Daywatch screening, more secondary school stuff (including an entrance exam… yikes!)

July

Me at the Gormley exhibition

Secondary school interview (yikes!), started on the Sunshine DVD release, bit of Daywatch work, David Hoyle started Magazine again… my son was offered a place at a secondary school (yay!)

August

Brian, Mo, Benny Wong, Cliff Curtis

Sunshine DVD release, 28 Weeks Later DVD release, Daywatch, more David Hoyle at Magazine… QR Codes.

September

QR Codes

QR Codes for 28 Weeks Later, interviewed about QR on various tv and radio programmes, my son started at his new school, I was invited to talk to the Nuclear Industry Association, recorded the Nature podcast sponsor stings, went to more David Hoyle shows, saw Prince’s final aftershow gig, got properly ill.

October

CERN

Still ill. Started working on a project looking at the Ageing Population, went to CERN twice - the first time with Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery, the second time with Quentin Wilson- took part in a Nuclear Industry Association roundtable discussion, met Arvind from Slingshot Studios.

November

David Hoyle

Lots of meetings, dinners and lunches. Ageing Project roundtable meeting and dinner… And, of course, the wonderful David Hoyle.

December

My father came to visit, I attended the Juno bloggers’/Twitterers’ screening, fell in LOVE with ‘Juno’ (you’ll be hearing more about this), started Twittering (finally), went to see the King Tut exhibition, attended the Nuclear Industry Association annual dinner, my son had his birthday, recorded a Digital Planet with Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson, more talks with Slingshot Studios, David Soul…then…

…today.

After all that, I really need to rest over the next few weeks. I feel like I’ve still not recovered from my illness properly and still need to catch up on all of the sleep I lost last spring with Sunshine… My next 10 days will consist of POWER RESTING. I won’t do any work (except for watching the pile of screeners I’ve got), I won’t worry about whether or not I’ll have any work in the new year… I will just relax in the most hardcore way…

This week, both Brian and I have articles about nuclear power in the ‘New Statesman‘. Brian’s is about the immorality of energy conservation and mine is about the PR issues the nuclear industry needs to deal with.

You can download the PDF from the New Statesman’s site.

It’s official. I am truly a professional blogger now. Today I start my second blogging job. I’ve been hired along with two other writers to investigate nuclear new build for the Institute of Physics here in the UK.

This summer the DTI Energy Review is going to announce its decision about whether or not they will commit to building new nuclear power plants to replace the ones which will be de-commissioned over the next 30 years.

The independent watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission, has looked into the issue and decided that nuclear power isn’t the way forward. Their findings are not the government’s final decision.

There doesn’t seem to be a government-led public consultation before they make their decision this summer. Our job on the Potential Energy project is to instigate and encourage that public discussion…

None of the writers on the project are nuclear experts, yet all of us have an open mind about nuclear power. Over the next 10 weeks I invite all of you in the UK (and elsewhere, of course) to come along, engage in the conversation and let your voice be heard. So far everyone commenting on the site is pro-nuclear… are there any anti-nuclear people out there?