HALF of this weekend's Mount Beauty Writers Festival's featured books are works of non-fiction, one of which is 'The Long Half-life: The Nuclear Industry in Australia', written by Professor Ian Lowe of Griffith University.
Released in 2021, 'The Long Half-life' tells the social and political history of Australia’s role in the nuclear industry, from the first discovery of radioactive ores in 1906 to contemporary contentious questions.
Can nuclear energy help to slow global climate change?
Do we need nuclear weapons for our defence?
Should the next generation of submarines be nuclear powered?
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'The Long Half-life' is a timely and riveting account of the political, social and scientific complexities of the nuclear industry, revealing the power of vested interests, the subjectivities of scientists and the transformative force of community passion.
"Australia has been directly involved in the nuclear industry for more than a century, but our involvement has never been comprehensively documented," Professor Lowe said.
"Writing affords me the opportunity to explore complex issues and communicate them to a wider audience.
"I haven’t had a full-time academic job for 25 years but I continue to do research, to give guest lectures, to publish and to make presentations at conferences, seminars and workshops.
"With two Griffith University colleagues, I am still wrapping up a project we have carried out on intimidation of researchers, especially those working in politically contentious areas such as climate change and nuclear issues.
"We will be communicating our findings in the next year.
"I have a proposal to write a memoir being considered by a publisher and am working with Health and Wellbeing Queensland to produce a print version of a web-based learning activity for children.
"As our world is increasingly shaped by technologies, it is critically important for the community to understand the benefits and risks of the alternatives we choose."
Professor Lowe is actively involved with local Australian conservation and natural resource programs.
He is on the board of the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation and Health and Well-being Queensland, as well as the Queensland government’s climate change advisory body, and on the stakeholder reference group for a large pumped hydro project in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
"I am part of a group set up by the combined Royal Societies to develop proposals for evidence-based policies in such areas as health and energy," Professor Lowe said.
"I am also co-chair of a new national body, the Australian Peace and Security Forum, which was publicly launched in Canberra, in late September."
Professor Lowe will be returning from the UK after hiking along historic walking sites, such as the Yorkshire Dales and Cotswold Way and playing golf on the British Open courses in northwest England around Birkdale, Hoylake and Lytham Saint Annes.
"I have reorganised my return travel to be able to give a conference presentation about nuclear issues in Perth, the weekend before I come to Mount Beauty," he said.
"I have never been to the Victorian Alps or Mount Beauty before, it will be a new experience!"
Professor Lowe has standing commitments to play and umpire seniors cricket, (now a year-round activity, because seniors cricket in Queensland is played in the winter,) and he is a keen reader.
"I have three books on my bedside table at the moment," he said.
"One is 'A Guide to Walking the Cotswold Way' as preparation for that trip, a book about discontinued rail lines in the UK and 'A Load of Old Balls'; the QI history of sport.
"I have just finished Melissa Lucashenko’s wonderful novel, 'Edenglassie' and Trent Dalton’s 'Lola in the Mirror'."
