Helen Caldicott is a pediatrician and an antinuclear activist, who opposes both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. In the early 1970s she spearheaded an antinuclear movement in her native Australia, which forced an end to French nuclear testing in the South Pacific and managed to stop Australian uranium exports from 1975 to 1982. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she became a leader in the antinuclear movement in the United States through her role in reviving the organization Physicians for Social Responsibility , which expanded rapidly during her presidency (which ran from 1978 to 1983). She helped found several other organizations which have worked to abolish controlled nuclear fission. Relying on her passionate oratory and intensely personal style, which are grounded in a thorough knowledge of the medical effects of exposure to radiation , she was particularly effective in raising grass-roots support and bringing nuclear issues to the forefront in the 1980s.

Caldicott...