Nuclear Hotseat

Mitsuhei Murata is a career diplomat and former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland who has been very outspoken in his opposition to Japan's nuclear policies, especially since Fukushima began in 2011. Recently, his proposal that Japan should seek an "honorable retreat" from the 2020 Olympics because of Fukushima has been gathering international media attention. We learn about the man, how he came to his anti-nuclear position, and what led him to this very public strategy regarding Japan's intention to host the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

• Ambassador Murata's website:  http://kurionet.web.fc2.com/murata.html
• Counterpunch article by Robert Hunziker featuring Ambassador Murata's comments on the Olympics:  www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/14/fukushima-amplifies-murphys-law

Radioactive rice grown in 2013 in Minami-Soma,  declared "not guilty!" of any connection with Fukushima's leaking, radioactive triple-meltdown only 12 miles/20 km away -- this according to Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) and the government discontinued the investigation.  BUT - the people, the petition, the City Assembly are pushing back against the nuclear numnutz in power.  Who wins?  Stay tuned...

• West Lake Moms under Twitter assault by waste dump owner Republic Services' paid trolls while the EPA makes excuses ("The dog ate it!") for not taking control of WWII Manhattan Project nuclear waste and Superfund site.
• DUCK! and Cover Reactor Report features reactor cost overruns at Vogtle in GA, steam leak at Peach Bottom near Three Mile Island in PA.
• Indian Point 3 driving on expired license only 35 miles from Broadway; at least 10 protesters arrested.
• Demonstrations around the world in support of banning the India-Japan Nuclear Agreement.  (For more information, go to:  Nuclear Hotseat #231 - interview with Kumar Sundaram)

...and much, much more! 

• Kevin Hester was born in New Zealand and became involved in the early 1980’s in that country's environmental movement, which was heavily influenced by the anti-nuclear activities that resulted in having NZ declared nuclear-free.  Here, he talks about the COP 21 cop-outs, the Climate Change/Nuclear Connection, his witnessing the Rainbow Warrior's destruction, and what the near term holds as everything continues to heat up.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Japan Atomic Power Company join forces to create... well, an admission of guilt and danger, as well as a product that makes no sense... not unlike nuclear itself.

• "Nuclear Energy's COP 21 Dilemma: 100% Renewables Is Attainable" by Michael Mariotte
• "Is Gates' Breakthrough Energy Coalition' a Nuclear Spearhead?" by Linda Pentz Gunter

• Ed Smith, who is with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, explains the proposed legislation to put Federal supervision of the West Lake Landfill under the Army Corps of Engineers and the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, or FUSRAP.
• Dawn Chapman, a Mom who lives two miles from West Lake and Admins the West Lake Landfill Facebook site, on latest developments in the PR "divide and conquer" pushback from Republic Services.

Japan opens an "environmental radiation center," a branch of the Fukushima Prefectural Center for Environmental Creation (emphasis added) in Minami-Soma.  Expressed purpose?  "(to) conduct more minute and precise radiation monitoring and release accurate data to the public to dispel the anxiety of Fukushima residents and negative publicity about radioactive contamination."  In other words, it's not about science; it's planned for propaganda.  Numnutz, indeed!

• Nuke industry invades COP21 Climate Change summit in Paris suited up to promote the "nuclear is green" lie and try to stick the world with 1,000 more gigawatts of nuclear capacity... when they STILL don't know what to do with the eternally radioactive waste they've already got.
• Australia nuke saga - France ships its radwaste to Australia, which is moving to develop new nuclear waste storage facilities on sites nominated by landholders, which are being fought against by neighbors who don't want to lose their livelihood, and all if it is underscored by the Indigenous Aboriginal community pulls out of environmental demonstration because pro-nukers have been allowed to march in Sidney's Climate March.
• Tractor-trailor filled with radioactive hazmat suits from Three Mile Island crashes on Maryland highway near Hagerstown.
• Tennessee doesn't want new nuke landfill at the Oak Ridge facility, which is already a Superfund site because of contamination from WWII atomic bomb constuction.
• Japan - 11 new cases of thyroid cancer in young people in Fukushima as officials claim "no connection" with 2011 triple meltdown.
• ...and more!

• A deeply felt apology.

• Kumar Sundaram is a true firebrand of an international activist in India's fight against nuclear technology.  Kumar is a Research Consultant with the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP). Right now, he's in the middle of a two-week trip to Japan, where he has been speaking to groups and rallys as large as 10,000 as he gatherers support against the planned India/Japan Nuclear Agreement. He joined us via Skype from Hiroshima on Sunday, November 22, during a break from the World Nuclear Victims Forum.
  
• Vicki Nelson lives in Hawaii and in 2012, after a trip to Fukushima, started the nonprofit Fukushima Friends, Inc.  This program invites those living in the radiation to come to Hawaii to, as Vicki put it, "breathe fresh air, swim in the ocean and eat good food."  Fukushima radiation refugees stay in people's homes for up to 3 months, or longer if the visas can be managed. She joined us via Skype from the Big Island of Hawaii, along with one of her homestay guests, Tokiko Noguchi, visiting from Fukushima with her 10-year-old son. The interpreter pressed into service for this interview, Kea Uehara, is a volunteer from a local school, and he did a terrific job on short notice despite not being trained as an interpreter or being familiar with nuclear issues. This interview originally aired on Nuclear Hotseat #207 on June 9, 2015.

• Karen Nickle is a long time resident of the North St. Louis area who grew up close to Coldwater Creek, where a social media survey revealed a cancer cluster caused by  Manhattan Project-era radioactive nuclear waste in the water. Since 2012, she has been involved in fighting for appropriate action to be taken to clean up the area and secure some kind of justice for local citizens.  Along with Dawn Chapman, who was interviewed on Nuclear Hotseat #227, she is the Admin of the West Lake Landfill Facebook page.

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:

National Parks are supposed to be places to commemorate and rejoyce with thick forests, beautiful vistas, roaring waterfalls... and WWII Manhattan Project sites?  I don't think Smokey would like this at all...

• NY's Governor Andrew Cuomo comes out swinging against Indian Point, denies vital certification.
• COVER-UP - LA kid's camp found to be contaminated w/strontium 90, tritium... and 1997 report buried, covered-up, denied.
• DUCK!... and Cover Report:
  
  • Pilgrim, Sequoyah, Palisades all in trouble
• ...and more!

• Mary Olson is Director of the Southeast Office for Nuclear Information and Resource Service, or NIRS, on the impact of radiation and how it wrecks disproportionately greater havoc on females than males.

What are they calling out at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, 76 times over?  "Heeeeere, radioactive waste materials...   Heeeeeeeeere, radioactive waste materials...  Where the heck have those radioactive waste materials gone to now...?!?"

• President Obama calls nuclear summit to get creative on how to HELP more nuclear reactors get built.  His official stance that nukes will "a way to combat climate change" fails to equate no carbon generation during operation (plenty in the mining, transporting, manufacturing, building and decommissioning processes) with the TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF DEADLY RADIOACTIVE WASTE!
• Las Vegas nuke waste dump explosion (excuse me - "energetic burning") and fire closes 140 miles of US Highway 95 while feds try to determine what caused it and whether radiation was released.
• US Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass) challenges Nuclear Regulatory Commission on how reactors will fare when confronted with extreme weather events.
• Based on two new reports from Japanese medical professionals and TEPCO, Fairewinds' Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen believes between 100,000 and one-million more cases of cancer will hit the Japanese population in the coming years because of Fukushima Daiichi's radiation.
• Canada - Will new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sink the Lake Huron nuclear waste dump?  Activists' fingers are crossed...

• Beyond Nuclear's report on Faustian Fission, the ongoing dangers of Davis-Besse in Ohio.
• Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland calls for the country to take an "honorable retreat" from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics because of Fukushima undertainties.
• Hacking risks to Nuclear Power Plants - anonymous insiders reveal real problems in a new report from think-tank Chatham House.