Exposure: Victims of Radiation Speak Out

A yearlong study led a team of Japanese journalists to conclude that nuclear testing, refining and power plants continue to contaminate human beings and create more hibakusha (radiation victims). First published as a series of articles in a Hiroshima newspaper in 1989-1990, this impressive, in-depth report details nuclear contamination's appalling toll: the still-lethal effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster; the destruction British, French and Japanese nuclear tests and refineries have caused in the South Pacific; the danger the ongoing development of nuclear power for ``peaceful'' uses poses to the planet and its inhabitants. The authors cite New Mexican and Nambian villagers whose homes were irradiated by uranium mining, and fishermen in India who became ill as a result of their proximity to the nation's ``radiation coast'' (on the Arabian Sea) and to the Tarapur Nuclear Complex, reputedly ``the dirtiest nuclear facility in the world.'' Although national and international scientific research groups evince increasing awareness of the need for action, especially concerning nuclear waste, the authors call upon Japan to display even greater initiative in this area. ( Oct. )