Emily Strasser is a writer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work has appeared in Catapult, Ploughshares, Guernica, Colorado Review, The New York Times, The Bitter Southerner, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and Tricycle, among others, and she was the presenter of the BBC podcast “The Bomb.” She is also working on a book about the intersection of family and national secrets in the nuclear city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

To give some background, Oak Ridge was established in 1942 as a production site for the Manhattan Project—the massive American, British, and Canadian operation that developed the atomic bomb. It’s the site of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, scientific and technological development and still plays a crucial role in the city's economy and culture in general. The location and low population also helped keep the town a secret, though the settlement's population grew from about 3,000-3,750 in 1942 to about 75,000 by 1945.

At the same time, the government is still cleaning up from the sites’ historic roles. In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency designated the Oak Ridge Reservation as a Superfund site.

With Emily, we discuss the history of the nuclear age with Leo Szilard and her grandfather who worked at Y-12, what secrecy means to her within the nuclear industry, how Oak Ridge became a Superfund site and what their clean up process, and what motivated her to write her book.

Contact and connect with Emily: http://emilystrasser.com

BBC podcast The Bomb: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-bomb/id1524778767

Oak Ridge History and Clean Up: https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/oak-ridge-a-look-into-the-superfund-sites-environmental-cleanup/51-552401280

Leo Szilard: https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/leo-szilard https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/biographies/szilard.html

Claire Miller is the Movement Building Director at UU Mass Action in Boston, Massachusetts.

Since 2006 UU Mass Action has been organizing and mobilizing the 20,000 Unitarian Universalists and 142 congregations in Massachusetts to confront oppression. Their pathways to justice are selected by identifying the priorities in which their congregations are engaged, engaging in our coalition partners shared priorities, assessing legislative momentum and identifying who are the most vulnerable people in the Commonwealth.

UU Mass Action is committed to the abolition of fossil fuels and the just transition to 100% renewable clean energy. They believe that the technology is available to make this change, all that is lacking is the political will. They believe that they cannot wait for elected officials to take action – the people must take action.  A change of this magnitude requires a shared vision and effective organizing.  In the words of Naomi Klein, “It’s going to take everyone to change everything.”

With Claire we talk about what environmental injustices in Massachusetts, what legislation they are working on, what got them into this work, and how you can get involved. 

Contact and connect with Claire: [email protected]

UUMass Action:https://www.uumassaction.org/

Environmental Justice: https://www.nrdc.org/stories/environmental-justice-movement https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice https://www.sierraclub.org/environmental-justice/history-environmental-justice

Background Music Credits:

https://www.youtube.com/c/mbbmusic

https://soundcloud.com/mbbofficial

https://www.instagram.com/mbb_music

Tom Clements is Director at Savannah River Site Watch or SRS Watch for short. They are working for the public interest by monitoring activities at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina and other DOE and commercial nuclear projects in the southeastern U.S. region and beyond & striving to halt proliferation of weapons-usable materials.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is a nuclear reservation in South Carolina, located on land in Aiken, Allendale, and Barnwell counties adjacent to the Savannah River, 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Augusta, Georgia. The site was built during the 1950s to refine nuclear materials for deployment in nuclear weapons.

It is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The management and operating contract is held by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions LLC (SRNS).

Future plans for the site cover a wide range of options, including host to research reactors, a reactor park for power generation, and other possible uses. DOE and its corporate partners are watched by a combination of local, regional and national regulatory agencies and citizen groups.

With Tom, we discuss what projects SRS is working on, who owns the site and what accountability they have, plutonium fuel and the dangers, and how you can get involved.

Contact and connect with Tom: [email protected]

Savannah River Site info: https://srswatch.org/

http://www.bredl.org/nuclear/SRS.htm

https://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/savannah-river-site-fact-sheet.aspx

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/deadly-legacy-savannah-river-site-near-aiken-one-of-the-most-contaminated-places-on-earth/article_d325f494-12ff-11e7-9579-6b0721ccae53.html

Joni Arends is Executive Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety in Santa Fe, NM whose mission is to protect all living beings and the environment from the effects of radioactive and other hazardous materials now and in the future.

New Mexico is a hotspot for nuclear activities including: Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory which is the birthplace of atomic age of nuclear weapons design and production nuclear waste dump, the Trinity test site which is the world’s first atomic bomb test site, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which is a plutomium bomb waste dump, Holtec, Inc, which is a propsed interim storage site for up to 100,000 tons of radioactive high level waste, and much more.

With Joni we talk about the full circle of the nuclear cycle in NM, the DownWinders and the need for the renewal of the RECA bill, what Los Alamos National Lab is doing, and how you can get involved.

Contact and connect with Joni: [email protected]

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety: http://nuclearactive.org/

Map of Nuclear Activities: https://nukewatch.org/Nuclear-New-Mexico.html

Renewal of RECA bill: https://www.justice.gov/civil/common/reca https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/947/text

Ralph Hutchinson who is the coordinator of The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance whose main focus is stopping nuclear weapons production at the Y12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and protecting the environment threatened by legacy and ongoing activities at the Oak Ridge Nuclear Reservation.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. It was adopted at the United Nations Conference on July 7, 2017, opened for signatures by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on September 20, 2017,  the 50th country signed the Treaty on October 24th of this year and now will enter into force on January 22, 2021.

For those nations that are party to it, the treaty prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. For nuclear armed states joining the treaty, it provides for a time-bound framework for negotiations leading to the verified and irreversible elimination of its nuclear weapons programs.

The nuclear-weapon-ban treaty, according to its proponents, will constitute an "unambiguous political commitment" to achieve and maintain a nuclear-weapon-free world.

With Ralph, we talk about background on the treaty, what countries have signed it, what happens now that the 50th ratification happened, and ways to get involved for a nuclear free world.

Contact and connect with Ralph: [email protected]

FB Group: Nuclear Ban Treaty, [email protected]

RESOURCES FOR JAN 22nd: https://orepa.org/nuclear-ban-treaty-entry-into-force-resources/

More on the Treaty: https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/ https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XXVI-9&chapter=26 https://www.nti.org/learn/treaties-and-regimes/treaty-on-the-prohibition-of-nuclear-weapons/ https://www.icanw.org/historic_milestone_un_treaty_on_the_prohibition_of_nuclear_weapons_reaches_50_ratifications_needed_for_entry_into_force

Haakon ("Hoken") Williams is the Deputy Director of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear policy organization that works to improve protections from nuclear risks and assists communities near nuclear facilities and contaminated sites. Haakon has worked with Committee to Bridge the Gap since 2018, including helping produce a series of technical reports on the cleanup of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard that received coverage from the San Francisco Chronicle and NBC Bay Area.

The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California (USA), located on 638 acres (258 ha) of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city. The U.S. Navy acquired the site in 1940 and they built, repaired, and did maintenance of ships for the U.S. during World War II.

Later, the U.S. Navy established the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) in 1946 at HPS to study the effects of and to develop counter measures from nuclear weapons. NRDL operated until 1969 and conducted studies related to ship shielding, radioactive waste for deep-sea disposal, animal research, radiation detection instrumentation development, and other laboratory studies. NRDL also decontaminated and disposed of some ships involved in nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands.

The site currently consists of approximately 866 acres, 446 of which are under water. The base was named redundant as part of the Base Realignment and Closure effort in 1991, and was closed permanently in 1994. Since then the site has been part of a superfund cleanup effort to remediate the leftovers of decades of industrial and radiological use. Parcels have been sold off as they were cleaned up, mostly for condominium development.

With Haakon we discuss the history not many people know about, with the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, the effort to try to clean it up, and what they want to do with the area now.

Contact and connect with Haakon: [email protected]

Committee to Bridge the Gap: https://www.committeetobridgethegap.org

More on HPNS: https://www.committeetobridgethegap.org/category/hunters-point/

https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/complex/hunters-point-naval-shipyard.html

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco-hunters-point-contamination-cleanup-development/175231/

TetraTech Scandal: https://www.courthousenews.com/developer-sues-tetra-tech-and-feds-over-hunters-point-project/ https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/U-S-sues-Tetra-Tech-over-Hunters-Point-shipyard-13536013.php

Lesie, Scott, and Phil, are all members of Protect Caswell, a chapter of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League that is dedicated to help protect and preserve rights in Caswell County, NC.

They are fighting Carolina Sunrock, LLC, a company that plans to run three large hot mix asphalt plants producing over two and a half million tons of asphalt per year, plus three truck mix cement plants, two stone crushers, and three power generators at three separate sites within 10 miles of each other in their community of Caswell County, NC. Asphalt plants are sources of air pollution that may emit significant levels of both particulate matter and gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These pollutants are considered to be dangerous to human health.

One action that the Protect Caswell Chapter has made is a formal request to the Board of Commissioners for a comprehensive review of existing and proposed paving industry permits in the Prospect Hill and Anderson communities. They said "We submit to you this request for a multiple source review. We believe the draft permits are fatally flawed because they fail to protect public health." She concluded, "We just want all these smokestacks looked at together because they all emit toxic air pollution."

With Leslie, Scott, and Phil, we discuss how they got started as a chapter, how they informed their county commissioners about theses industries coming in, actions they are taking, flaws they found in the asphalt plants permits, and how others can help.

Contact and connect with Protect Caswell: https://www.protectcaswell.org/

More information on asphalt plants: https://www.osha.gov/archive/oshinfo/priorities/asphalt.html http://www.bredl.org/air/asphalt_plants.htm

County Wide Zoning: https://www.sog.unc.edu/resources/legal-summaries/county-zoning https://www.naco.org/resources/featured/planning-ahead-county-planning-land-use-zoning-strategies-affordable-housing

Moratorium on Polluting Industries: https://www.caswellmessenger.com/news/article_e95a2712-ab22-11ea-b1a9-f3c766726a1a.html https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27032020/coronavirus-covid-pandemic-agriculture-plastics-airlines-renewables-coal

Background Music Credits:

https://www.youtube.com/c/mbbmusic

https://soundcloud.com/mbbofficial

https://www.instagram.com/mbb_music

Wanda Bodnar, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at UNC Chapel Hill and serving as the Scientist Program Analyst for the NC PFAS Testing Network. Dr. Bodnar’s specialty is the development and application of qualitative and quantitative mass spectrometry-based methods to improve our understanding of the health effects that result from exposure to environmental contaminants. She is focused on quality control and quality assurance of experimental processes and data generation to ensure scientific rigor.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, are man-made compounds that are resistant to water and grease. Some PFAS have been linked with a wide range of health effects from thyroid disease to high cholesterol to lower birth weight, as well as some cancers. PFAS chemicals are likely contaminating the source of drinking water for more than a million North Carolina residents by running from the Haw River into the Cape Fear River.

The PFAS Testing Network is a statewide research collaboration to test for current levels of PFAS chemicals in drinking water and air samples across the state. The Network comprises Principal Investigators from NC State, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Charlotte, ECU, and NC A&T who have received NC General Assembly funding through the NC Policy Collaboratory.

The NC PFAST Network was created in response to a legislative mandate and funding by the North Carolina General Assembly to help answer questions about exposure to PFAS chemicals throughout NC.

With Wanda, we talk about the NC PFAS Testing Network, the research on PFAS that they’ve done and are doing, removal of PFAS in the environment, communicating PFAS to the public, and what you all can do.

Contact and connect with Wanda: [email protected]

NC PFAS Testing Network: https://ncpfastnetwork.com/about/

Updates on PFAS: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article246663348.html?ac_cid=DM309451&ac_bid=-1644846740#storylink=cpy

Check your utilities for levels of PFAS: https://ncpfastnetwork.com/data-and-tools/

Dark Water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvAOuhyunhY

Background Music Credits:

https://www.youtube.com/c/mbbmusic

https://soundcloud.com/mbbofficial

https://www.instagram.com/mbb_music

Dale Feik is the Chair of Washington County Citizen Action Network and Project Director of Hillsboro Air & Water. Located in Washington County in OR.

So far this year, fires in Oregon, Washington, and California have burned some 5 million acres, marking the West Coast’s worst fire season in at least 70 years. The blazes have killed at least 35 people, destroyed hundreds of structures, and caused extreme air pollution that has threatened the health of millions of residents. Millions up and down the coast have spent weeks living under thick clouds of smoke and ash. Ecologists also fear the wildfires could inflict lasting damage on species and ecosystems.

Data from two NASA satellites that can detect heat, shows fire activity in California, Oregon and Washington in 2020 has already eclipsed even the worst previous year.

With Dale we talk about his experience with the wildfires in Portland, OR, what work he’s doing/ done to combat air pollution, how wildfires are linked with climate change, and what his hope for the future is.

Contact and connect with Dale: [email protected]

21 Youth Suing Congress: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/03/kids-sue-us-government-climate-change/

https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/juliana-v-us

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/01/17/federal-appeals-court-tosses-landmark-youth-climate-lawsuit-against-us-government/

Carbon Fee: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/basics-carbon-fee-dividend/ https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07032019/carbon-tax-proposals-compare-baker-shultz-exxon-conocophillips-ccl-congress

Wildfires in the west: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/wildfires-continue-western-united-states-biologists-fear-vulnerable-species

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/14/us/gallery/western-wildfires-2020/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/24/climate/fires-worst-year-california-oregon-washington.html

Oleg Bodrov is the Chairperson for NGO Green World. Oleg is an engineer-physicist and environmentalist. After finishing his studies at the Leningrad Polytechnic University (1976) as an engineer-physicist he has been engaged in testing of nuclear submarines. From 1980 till 1993 he was head of a group of the Regional Ecological Laboratory of the Khlopin Radium Institute, St. Petersburg. After a visit to the contaminated area of the Chernobyl NPP in 1986, he left the nuclear industry and came to the environmental movement. Since 2005 he has been one of the initiators & head of an international NGO project for a promotion of safe decommissioning of the Russian nuclear power plants and final disposal of, spent nuclear fuel on the basis of the best international practice (Germany, Lithuania, USA, Sweden, Finland).

In 1999, Center for Safe Energy, sponsored 3 weeks of People's Hearings on plutonium fuel in Russia. A delegation of US activists and experts went to Russia as participants in this education effort. Delegates included our executive director Lou Zeller and this is where he met and worked with Oleg. A few years later, Oleg along with his other colleagues from Russia came to the U.S. to advocate and educate against nuclear.

Ultimately, with this foundation, plus local community work in NC, SC and GA. Some legal actions challenging NRC permitting (Duke Energy’s Catawba and McGuire power plants were slated to use the fuel), succeeded in stopping the joint Russian-American project to use plutonium in nuclear electric power plants.  The American factory for fuel manufacture would have been at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.  Indeed, the Dept. of Energy spent $4 billion on it before abandoning the project.

With Oleg, we talk about his transition from nuclear into the environment movement, his experience in Russia before and after Chernobyl happened, his time in the U.S. touring nuclear facilities, the Russian version of the NRC, and current issues he’s working on now.

Contact and connect with Oleg: [email protected]

Documentaries: 1. Wasteland  (about Russian nuclear weapons, reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and consequences for the people and environment) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCmcvyctVrU&t=849s

2. Digging our own grave (about nuclear weapon production in Russia and resistance of Russian society) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJftotBfGnU

3. Vermont state against Vermont Yankee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONrpfBOwkDc&t=593s

4. Everything in our power (about Main Yakee NPP decommissioning)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fvs36in2Qo&t=9s

5. Hanhikivi (About Finnish NPP hanhikivi) and about connection of civil and military technologies) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgwKyZ3gSCs&t=60s

Chernobyl: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-chernobyl-like-today/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/what-s-going-on-in-chernobyl-today/

Decommissioning: https://www.nrc.gov/waste/decommissioning.html https://www.nei.org/advocacy/make-regulations-smarter/decommissioning