Rig, Rad, Run: Radiation Monitoring, Fukushima, and Our Nuclear Dystopia

‘RIG, RAD, RUN: Radiation Monitoring, Fukushima, and Our Nuclear Dystopia’ addresses the shortcomings and manipulations in the radiation monitoring responses of the U.S. EPA and FDA in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

In the book, author Andrew Kishner argues that preconceived, unscientific notions corrupted the EPA’s sampling and testing activities to monitor Fukushima radiation and were used by FDA to justify substandard monitoring (and even doing no monitoring at all) of domestic and imported seafood for radiation linked to the disaster. These failures may have harmed the health of Americans in the years after the triple nuclear reactor meltdowns in Japan in 2011.

EXCERPT from ‘Rig, Rad, Run’: “Without adequate radiation monitoring, no one could know for sure if one or more cohesive and concentrated airborne plumes of radiation crossed the Pacific from Fukushima in March 2011, nor know what was in them. My conclusion at the end of my investigation was that the EPA might have allowed hazardous plumes to cross into the U.S. undetected. This was the result of pitifully meager sampling and analyses coupled with testing protocols that were as unimpressive as the layout of the RadNet network itself.”

Kishner, a nuclear researcher and former radiation monitoring network watchdog, blends into this retrospective of his discoveries on the U.S. Fukushima response a fascinating narrative about his activism, sharing with the reader the kind of inner struggles that anti-nuclear activists and writers often face with burnout and plagiarism. Kishner, who is self-taught on many nuclear topics, also shares his unique take on the frustration of being an ‘unapproved channel.’

Kishner concludes his book with two hard-to-swallow assertions stemming from his revelations of scientific misconduct and government malfeasance about the U.S.-Fukushima response and similar failures that have dangerously littered (with junk) the halls of science relating to the understanding of radiation risk. First, we’re not being protected from radiation incidents and Americans should–in the future–RUN if government monitoring manipulations (and rigging) become evident (RIG, RAD, RUN). Second, the problems of nuclear dystopia stem directly from the failures of the humans that created and support it. The author presents a solution that challenges citizens with its revolutionary simplicity.

This book is suited to readers with a working knowledge of radiation basics and nuclear history.