Nuclear Hotseat

HOT! India/Pakistan Escalation of Hostilities Risks Nukes + Inside Nuclear Launch Command Chain w/Former Head of U.S. Strategic Command + IPPNW's Ira Helfand at UN for NPT

What you never want to see in your neighborhood... 

Gen. C. Robert Kehler, Ret.

Gen. C. Robert Kehler, Ret., former Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, explains from inside the process how an order from the Commander in Chief to launch nuclear weapons would unfold down the chain of command. Excerpts from an interview conducted at the 2024 Outrider Nuclear Reporting Summit. He was interviewed on stage in front of an audience of 130 reporters by W.J. (Bill) Hennigan, Correspondent, New York Times Opinion. A nuanced military insider's take on what the nuclear launch process looks like once an Executive Order to launch takes place. The interview took place on December 6, 2024, after Donald Trump was elected president but before he took office.

NOTE:   This episode was ready to go with the full-length interview with Gen. Kehler, including a 20-minute section with his observations on nukes, deterrence, and AI.  With the news of India's attack on Pakistan and the downing of five Indian jets, the second half of the interview has been delayed to make room for this other story.  We hope to be able to have it for you in a few weeks.  

Our thanks to the Outrider Foundation for having held this event and for permission to use this recording on Nuclear Hotseat. 

W. L. Hennigan (l) and Gen. C. Robert Kehler, Ret r)

Dr. Ira Helfand at the United Nations, April 30, 2025

Dr. Ira Helfand, a board member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), addressing the Third Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, on April 30, 2025.  Watch the speech by clicking on the image above or go to:  https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1h/k1hse9op1q?kalturaStartTime=3685.
To read a copy of the speech or download a pdf, go to:  https://peaceandhealthblog.com/2025/04/30/do-not-let-the-nuclear-armed-states-lead-us-down-the-path-to-death/

A two-page brochure/fact sheet that spells out why "deterrence" is a flawed defense of nuclear weapons.  You can DOWNLOAD THE PDF HERE.

• 5 things to know as Trump rolls out Golden Dome missile defense shield
• Trump wants denuclearization and a ‘Golden Dome.’ He can’t have both
• International Responses to the Fukushima Water Release: Science and Politicss

Pubic Watchdogs' Nina Babiarz (l) and Charles Langley (r)

• Since 1976, California law has banned the building of any new nuclear reactors until there is a solution to the problem of where to bury the deadly radioactive nuclear waste. But proposed new nuclear legislation, AB 305, has been called a “stealth attack” that subverts this 49-year old ban to allow for untold numbers of small modular nuclear reactors to be built around the state. As bad as the bill itself is the manipulation by highly paid lobbyists and political hacks to prevent the public from being able to comment on the nuclear legislation.Carefully following and challenging these machinations are the watchdogs at Public Watchdogs, Executive Director Charles Langley and Director of Development Nina Babiarz. Here they explain not ony whats wrong with HB 305, but the machinations and manipulations that have prevented the public from having input to the legislative process.

• PETITION: Demand a “No Vote” on AB 305 - STOP more New Nuclear plants in California!
• FILM SCREENING:  SOS: San Onofre Syndrome, the award-winning documentary on the activist battle to close the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and have the radioactive waste responsibly handled, will receive a special showing on June 1, 5 pm, at the beautiful Lido theatre in Newport Beach. The screening is sponsored by Public Watchdogs, San Clemente Green, and the Samuel Lawrence Foundation. Discussion with the films directors and activist leaders will follow.

DANCES WITH OPPENHEIMER - A pro-nuclear rave with Oppenheimer's grandson to brainwash Gen- Z-ers into loving nuclear energy. They see absolutely no irony in dancing to the Britany Spears' song TOXIC.

ICAN's Head of Media Alistair Burnett interviews Ithe group's Advocacy Officer Florian Eblenkamp on the meetings on the NPT - Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Nuclear Rave to convince GenXers that nukes are WHEEEEEEE!!!!!!

• Missouri is the "Show Me!" state, and the Missouri Peace Planters did just that when they repeatedly occupied multiple nuclear missile silos in the summer of 1988, causing a furor that helped raise awareness of this hidden danger at the height of the Cold War. Here’s Jack-Cohen-Joppa with this month’s Nuclear Resister.

• Congratulations to Nora Schroeder, junior at Kirkwood High School in Kirkwood, Missouri, for her C-SPAN Classroom's StudentCam award-winning documentary about the radioactive contamination of North St. Louis and Coldwater Creek:

LINK TO VIDEO HERE: - COPY AND PASTE:
https://www.c-span.org/program/vignette/the-radioactive-waste-crisis-a-hidden-hazard/657522

• Lakenheath Alliance for Peace - Report on Peace Camp, April 14-26, 2025

The "Elephant's Foot" - corium (molten core) of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster 

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster began on April 26, 1986 – another of those dates that will live in infamy. Here is the second SPECIAL Nuclear Hotseat that paints the picture of what happened then, what it did to the people who lived through it, and what we still face. It includes an UPDATE on the damage caused by the February 16, 2025 Russian drone strike on the New Safe Containment Structure. Historic interviews originally produced for Nuclear Hotseat #357, April 20, 2018.

• Bonnie Kouneva was a 15-year-old living in Communist Bulgaria when the Chernobyl disaster began, but no one knew about it because the Soviet Union said nothing to its people.  On May 1, May Day, only five days after it began, Bulgarian citizens were “encouraged” by the Soviet hierarchy to attend all-day celebrations of the communist state – outdoors, in the rain – at the exact time the worst of Chernobyl’s radiation was directly overhead. Here, she paints the picture of the impact of that radiation rainout and lets us know the result of this devastating experience.
• Dr. Timothy Mousseau is an evolutionary biologist and faculty member of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Since 1999, Professor Mousseau and his collaborators have explored the ecological, genetic and evolutionary consequences of low-dose radiation in populations of plants, animals and people inhabiting the Chernobyl region of Ukraine and Belarus.

Dr. Timothy Mousseau

• The late Dr. Janette Sherman edited the the English translation of the groundbreaking work, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment by Alexei Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko. Dr. Sherman was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Nuclear Hotseat, and we spoke about this book and how it came about for NH #97 on April 23, 2013.  She passed away on November 20, 2019.

The late Dr. Janette Sherman

• Dr. Alexei Yablokov was environmental advisor to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Gorbachev administration, as well as a co-founder of Greenpeace, Russia.  His book, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, compiled and translated into English more than 5,000 separate scientific reports on Chernobyl that completely contradict the World Health Organization’s report, which undermined the seriousness of the accident.  Dr. Yablokov died in January, 2017.

The late Dr.  Alexei Yablokov

CLICK HERE for a free PDF of the classic book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment by Alexei Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko, edited by Janette D. Sherman.

Article:  How a Cheap Drone Punctured Chernobyl’s 40,000-Ton Shield by Kim Barker for the New York Times

(KEYSTONE COVER IMAGE). The wreckage of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine, shortly after the explosion and meltdown on April 26, 1986. 
(ABOVE)  Color shot of Chernobyl in the immediate aftermath of the explosion and meltdown.  The fuzziness of the picture is due to radiation hitting the film and creating spots. 

NOTE:  I have recently experienced a major computer setback that is requiring excessive time and mental capacity to recover from.  (I'll explain once it's in the past tense.)  As we are hard upon the 39th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine on April 26, 1986, I believe it's an appropriate time to revisit some hard truths about that nuclear reactor explosion and the long-denied, ongoing health impacts of that event. 

Here, in a truly classic episode of Nuclear Hotseat, we bring you a full-length interview with Alison Katz, head of Independent WHO.  Next week will feature a narrative recounting of the disaster, what it was like for people who experienced it, and a range of perspectives that continue to make Chernobyl an ongoing danger to people and the environment. 

Hopefully I'll have recovered from my computer meltdown by then. 

Alison Katz, head of Independent WHO, outside World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland

Chernobyl Lies, Health Cover-Up by World Health Organization (WHO) Revealed
Interview with Alison Katz, a psychologist and sociologist who heads Independent WHO. This international watchdog group draws attention to the World Health Organization’s failure in its duty to protect those populations that are victims of radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and, later, Fukushima.  The group held a vigil in front of WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, five days a week, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., beginning April 26, 2007 – the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster - and continuing until its 31st anniversary on April 26, 2017.  

Every working day, between 8am and 6pm, a relay of members of the IndependentWHO – Health and Nuclear collective demanded that WHO should assume its responsibilities, independent of the nuclear establishment.  These silent demonstrators were also demanding that the truth be told about the short-term and long-term health damage suffered by all the victims of radioactivity, including those resulting from atmospheric military nuclear

Scenes from Independent WHO’s Chernobyl vigil in front of 
the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland

Given the visibility and popularity of the 2019 HBO series on Chernobyl – it now ranks as the most seen television program in the world, ever – it seemed the right time to reintroduce this classic Nuclear Hotseat episode to an audience that either has not yet heard it, or wishes to have their understanding of the devastating impacts of the nuclear disaster refreshed. Originally recorded for Nuclear Hotseat #118, September 17, 2013, the material covered has in no way gone out of date.

Video produced by Independent WHO:

https://youtu.be/3XUFaIIVDPQ?si=TO-2SiGgfcFl3ZOH

• Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future by Kate Brown. Superb accounting of the health devastation of Chernobyl, constructed from over three years of investigation into medical archives in eastern Europe. 
• Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higgenbotham.  NOTE: the author does a superb job reconstructing the horrors of this nuclear disaster, but then goes full-on pro-nuke during the final chapter, citing statistics from only the pro-nuclear WHO, IAEA, and UNSCEAR. I recommend that you put your tongue firmly in your cheek for that chapter and read the rest of the book for its narrative of nuclear lies, miscalculations, cover-ups, and destruction of people and the environment. In particular, the description of the physical devastation of high level radiation exposure exceeds the power of the visuals provided in the HBO series.

Veteran UK peace activist Angie Zelter, zooming with Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy

• Angie Zelter is a British peace activist and the founder of a number of international campaign groups, including Trident Ploughshares and the International Women's Peace Service. Zelter is known for non-violent direct action campaigns and has been arrested more than 100 times in Belgium, Canada, England, Malaysia, Norway, Poland and Scotland, serving 16 prison sentences for her beliefs.
  
  Angie is a member of the Lakenheath Alliance for Peace, a coalition of groups that is dedicated to preventing the return of US Nuclear weapons to Royal Air Force Lakenheath. She is also one of the organizers of the Lakenheath Peace Camp, which starts next Monday, April 14, 2025 and runs through the 26th, 2025. The 10-day event is cast in the image of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, which ran for 20 years to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England, and was ultimately successful in having the nuclear weapons removed.

Photo from Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, 1981 - 2000,
the model for the upcoming Lakenheath Peace Camp.

For people in the USA or other countries wanting to get involved or send a statement of support to the Lakenheath Peace Camp, you can write to: [email protected] or use this link:  https://lakenheathallianceforpeace.org.uk/front-page/about-us/contact-us/.

To help you get and stay motivated, here is a link to Angie Zelter’s book, Activism for Life: A whistle stop tour of the last 45 years of nonviolent direct action in the UK and abroad.

March 28 marked the 46th anniversary of the nuclear meltdown at the Unit 2 reactor Three Mile Island in Middletown near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I always like to include historical material from that time during the anniversary period. The timing didn’t work out for last week’s show. So I’m happy to this week be able to present my interview with Mary Stamos, also known as Mary Osborn, a long time Middletown resident, TMI survivor, and Three Mile Island Alert member.  Mary, who had no previous history as an activist, became involved in issues immediately after the accident when she noticed plant mutations - known as fasciation - that can be traced to radiation exposure.  Her collection of mutated plants and flowers was accepted by the Smithsonian Institution in 2019 to be preserved, digitized, and made available to the public. 

Mary Stamos-Osborn passed away on February 19, 2024.  This interview is from the 40th anniversary of the TMI accident as reported on Nuclear Hotseat #405, March 25, 2019.  

All these Holtec claims about small modular nuclear reactors - a Sputnik moment, or a sputtering senior moment?  Linda Pentz Gunter has the hot story. 

Why fool around with major corporations, government agencies, and billion dollar contracts?  A 12 year old boy from Tennessee built a fusion reactor in his bedroom with parts from ebay.  We are all doomed...  (ps - Elon Musk is rumored to have offered him an upper management post at DOGE.)

• Webinar based on materials presented at the United Nations 3rd Meeting of States Parties on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons - GENDER AND RADIATION: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm.  Presented by Mary Olson, founder, Gender and Radiation Impact Project; Dr. Amanda Nichols, University of California, Santa Barbara; and Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Hazard Specialist for Beyond Nuclear. 
  
  THE WEBINAR IS FREE BUT YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER TO ATTEND:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/K0lCXWlLRRCTYF0W3898fg#/registration
  
• Nuclear power is officially a clean energy source in Colorado. Not everyone is pleased.
• Should Canada explore developing a nuclear weapons program?