Fairewinds Education: No Nukes, Pull-eeze

 What if a nuclear disaster destroyed your life?   

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//~ to the tunes of How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, by U2 ~//

It would not take an atomic bomb laced with lethal doses of radiation to contaminate your homeland, and cause such chaos. When nuclear power plants fail and nuclear reactors experience leaks, explosions, and overheat, radiation is carried by the wind and contamination and chaos ensue. Since Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, Chernobyl in the Ukraine, and now the Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdown in Japan the lives of thousands of innocent people have been turned upside down and destroyed due to nuclear power risks becoming reality.

In the latest video feature from Fairewinds Energy Education entitled: What's life after nuclear disaster? , Fairewinds’ President Maggie Gundersen and award winning Vermont author Chris Bohjalian, discuss what life would be like if a nuclear meltdown occurred at a nuclear power plant in Vermont.  In his most recent novel, Close Your Eyes and Hold Hands, Chris uses Vermont as the scene of a nuclear meltdown as seen through the eyes and experiences of 16-year old Emily Shepard, who is orphaned by the catastrophe, Bohjalian’s readers are drawn into the hardships and uncertainty that accompany a nuclear tragedy. With a haunting reality, Bohjalian creates images for his readers of the life currently being lived by the victims of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdown, and previously experienced by the victims of the meltdowns at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

Book of the Month:

Close Your Eyes and Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian

Fairewinds Acknowledgement:

I want to begin by thanking … people whose work is dramatically more important than anything I do…. There is the leadership team at Fairewinds energy education, Arnie and Maggie Gundersen. Arnie was an atomic energy commission fellow and a licensed reactor operator who, as a senior vice president, managed or coordinated projects at 70 nuclear power plants across America. Maggie worked in public information and executive recruitment in the nuclear power industry. Today, through Fairewinds, they strive to educate the public and legislative tors about the realities of nuclear power and the issues with aging plants around the world. They volunteered enormous amounts of their time to teach me about the dangers of nuclear power, how plant works, and what Emily’s father’s life might have been like. I am encourage you to visit the Fairewinds website, where you can learn more about nuclear power and finding extensive bibliography.
Brief Summary:

A Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Best Book of the Year -
Emily Shepard is on the run; the nuclear plant where her father worked has suffered a cataclysmic meltdown, and all fingers point to him. Now, orphaned, homeless, and certain that she's a pariah, Emily's taken to hiding out on the frigid streets of Burlington, Vermont, creating a new identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson.
Then she meets Cameron. Nine years old and with a string of foster families behind him, he sparks something in Emily, and she protects him with a fierceness she did not know she possessed. But when an emergency threatens the fledgling home she's created, Emily realizes that she can't hide forever.