No Safe Lower Limit

Lyrics by: Westchester Grans
Gaggle: Westchester
Tune: Santa Claus is Coming to Town

(Hand motions are in square brackets.)
You better watch out! [ONE FINGER]
Raise up a cry! [FIST ]
Nukes aren’t safe. [SHAKE FINGER] I’m telling you why.
There is no safe [SHAKE HEAD] lower limit … at all! [OPEN ARMS, PALMS UP]

New facts are now in. Folks just didn’t know. [SHAKE HEAD]
The death rate spikes, [RAISE HAND] when the radiation’s low.
There is no safe [SHAKE HEAD] lower limit … at all! [OPEN ARMS, PALMS UP]

(CHORUS)
Does the NRC protect me? [HAND ON CHEST]
Or protect the industry? [GESTURE TO LEFT]
The collective dose and deaths,
Should be counted by the NRC!

Plutonium dust from weaponry … [GESTURE TO LEFT]
Releases from nukes run properly … [GESTURE TO RIGHT]
There is no safe [SHAKE HEAD] lower limit … at all! [OPEN ARMS, PALMS UP]

(CHORUS)
No choice or compensation; [SHAKE HEAD]
All our lives at stake. [OPEN HAND, PALM UP]
That’s morally, ethically wrong! [ONE FINGER]
Shut down nukes [FIST] for goodness sake!

[ONE VOICE] Switzerland is! [ONE VOICE] Germany is!

You better watch out! [ONE FINGER]
Raise up a cry! [FIST]
Nukes aren’t safe. [SHAKE FINGER] I’m telling you why.
[SLOWLY] THERE IS NO SAFE [SHAKE HEAD] LOWER LIMIT

… AT ALL! [OPEN ARMS, PALMS UP]

The Raging Grannies … and Their Friends in Westchester County NY have one of the oldest nuclear facilities in the US right in their neighborhood. It is up for relicensing. This song was sung at the local Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) meeting held shortly after the Fukushima disaster.

Reference: 2010 Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, The Health Effects of Exposure to Low Doses of Ionizing Radiation