Nuclear Hotseat

INTERVIEW: Dr. Helen Caldicott shares compelling reasons for producing her upcoming Symposium on the Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction and gives us a glimpse as to the importance in her life of the film, "On the Beach." NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK: Mmm mmm good – Fukushima rice balls fed to British Commonwealth ambassadors! Just shut your eyes and think of England, Dearies... PLUS: TEPCO's Fukushima water woes; 50% of children tested in Ibaraki Prefecture showing A2 or B thyroid nodules and cysts; former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey's home raided in investigation by state's Attorney General on his dealings in the $3.3 Billion San Onofre bailout of Southern California Edison; Pilgrim NPP shut down by blizzard; and manga artist of Oishinbo tells nosebleeding Fukushima residents: Get out. Now.

INTERVIEW: 

Dr. Helen Caldicott shares compelling reasons why she decided to produce her upcoming Symposium on the Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction, and gives us a glimpse as to the importance in her life of the film, "On the Beach."

Dr. Helen Caldicott's most influential film; to be screened at Symposium on the Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:

British Commonwealth ambassadors chow down on Fukushima food and saki to support produce exports.  Can an epidemiological study of these men be far behind...?

Mmm mmm good!  Eating Fukushima food?  It's their job.  Now, just shut your eyes and think of England...

PLUS:

• TEPCO's Fukushima water woes;
• 50% of children tested in Ibaraki Prefecture showing A2 or B thyroid nodules and cysts;
• Former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey's home raided in investigation by state's Attorney General on his dealings in the $3.3 Billion San Onofre bailout of Southern California Edison;
• Pilgrim NPP shut down by blizzard;
• Fiji nuclear victims of British bomb tests 1956-58 finally given an insulting pittance as "compensation" for the illnesses they suffered as a result;
• Oishinbo manga artist Tetsu Kariya draws new comic about nosebleeds in Fukushima, urges residents to "have the courage to flee."

Oishinbo Manga showing Fukushima nosebleed

LINKS:

• Former nuclear energy worker Dan Rudka's GoFundMe campaign to support his double lung transplant.

Dan Rudka

• An American Chenobyl: Nuclear Near Misses at U.S. Reactors since 1986 from Greenpeace
• The Nuclear Wars Waged against First Nations People
• Dumping Radioactive Food from Japan on the World: Why the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) is a Pending Disaster

How Karen Kramer met Dr. Helen Caldicott: A Short Film by Myla Reson

Activists in San Luis Obispo for the Jan. 24-25 Strategy Conference to Shut Down Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.  Banner concept and photo by Myla Reson, banner executed by Laura Lynch.  Can you spot Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy?

THIS WEEK: 

Full show dedicated to the January 24-25 Diablo Canyon Shutdown Strategy Conference, which took place in San Luis Obispo, California, 12 miles from the nuclear reactors.

Event speakers heard in this episode:

• Jane Swanson and Linda Seeley from San Luis Obispo Mother's for Peace, which hosted the event and has been fighting Diablo Canyon for more than 40 years (www.MothersForPeace.org);
• Testimony by Daniel Hirsch, University of California, Santa Cruz lecturer on nuclear policy, before Sen. Barbara Boxer's Committee on Environment and Public Works;
• Jerry Brown of World Business Academy on the Joseph Mangano/Radiation and Public Health Project's epidemiological study on cancer rates in San Luis Obispo County (www.Radiation.org);
• Damon Moglen of Friends of the Earth on shutdown strategies and talking points (www.FOE.org);
• Donna Gilmore of San Onofre Safety on the false safety promises of dry cask storage (www.SanOnofreSafety.org);
• Attorney Mike Aguirre on the need to find and protect whistleblowers;
• Veteran activist Harvey Wasserman on transitioning to solar (www.Solartopia.org);
• Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education on focusing our shutdown strategies (www.Fairewinds.org);
• Chumash elder Fred Collins and Japanese Buddhist monk Sawada-Shonin blessing our efforts

Thanks to Mary Beth Brangan, Jim Heddle and Ecological Options Network (EON3) for audio of Dan Hirsch from the Barbara Boxer Senate hearings.  EON3 has over 600 videos on nuclear and other environmental issues available on YouTube.

NOTE:  Many speakers from the conference not heard in this program will be featured on future episodes of Nuclear Hotseat. 

Full show dedicated to the January 24-25 Diablo Canyon Shutdown Strategy Conference, which took place in San Luis Obispo. Speakers heard in this program: Jane Swanson and Linda Seeley from San Luis Obispo Mother's for Peace, which hosted the event and has been fighting Diablo Canyon for more than 40 years; Daniel Hirsch's testimony before Sen. Barbara Boxer's Committee on Environment and Public Works; Jerry Brown of World Business Academy on Radiation and Public Health Project's epidemiological study on cancer rates in San Luis Obispo County; Damon Moglen of Friends of the Earth on shutdown strategies and talking points; Donna Gilmore of San Onofre Safety on the false safety promises of dry cask storage; Attorney Mike Aguirre on the need to find and protect whistleblowers; veteran activist Harvey Wasserman on transition to solar; Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds.org on focusing our shutdown strategies; and Chumash elder Fred Collins and Japanese Buddhist monk Sawada-Shonin blessing our efforts

SISTER MEAGAN RICE'S MAILING ADDRESS:

Megan Rice 88101-020
MDC Brooklyn
Metropolitan Detention Center
P.O. Box 329002
Brooklyn, NY 11232

TWEET THE POPE:

@Pontifex - Free Sister Megan Rice, 84-year-old who protested nuclear weapons, in jail for 32 months.

INTERVIEWS:

• Kristen Iversen, author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, on the dangers and deadly legacy of that atomic weapons manufacturing site near Denver, CO.
• Terrie Barrie is Rocky Flats Special Exposure Cohort co-petitioner.  She has been working to help exposed workers from that nuclear site get compensation from the US government under a little-known government program that admits that exposure to radiation is implicated in at least 22 named cancers!
  To learn more about this  program: Alliance of Nuclear Worker Advocacy Groups -  http://eecap.org/ANWAG_News.htm.
  
• Terrie Barrie's blog on worker issues: http://eecap.org/ANWAG_blog.htm
• US GOVERNMENT'S RECOGNIZED LIST OF 22 CANCERS LINKED TO RADIATION EXPOSURE:  http://atomicworkers.com/Cancer_List.html

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:

If  someone chooses to purchase and eat rice from Fukushima, methinketh they are the Numnutz of the Week!

PLUS:

• Two worker deaths in a single day at Fukushima Daiichi;
• Sea animals dying in Tokyo, Hawaii and Pacific west coast;
• Lots more that I had no time to read on the show!

Interviews: Author Kristen Iversen on her book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; and the US government program for compensating atomic industry workers whose health was damaged by their jobs - IMPORTANT PRECEDENT FOR CURRENT CASES AT WIPP, USS REAGAN, HANFORD, MORE! Plus: Tweet the Pope to come out against nukes as part of climate change encyclical and in support of Sister Megan Rice; Two worker deaths in a single day at Fukushima Daiichi; sea animals dying in Tokyo aquarium, Hawaii, Pacific west coast; and if you eat Fukushima rice, YOU are the Numnutz of the Week!

Interviews: Author Kristen Iversen on her book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; and the US government program for compensating atomic industry workers whose health was damaged by their jobs - IMPORTANT PRECEDENT FOR CURRENT CASES AT WIPP, USS REAGAN, HANFORD, MORE! Plus: Tweet the Pope to come out against nukes as part of climate change encyclical and in support of Sister Megan Rice; Two worker deaths in a single day at Fukushima Daiichi; sea animals dying in Tokyo aquarium, Hawaii, Pacific west coast; and if you eat Fukushima rice, YOU are the Numnutz of the Week!

Interviews: Author Kristen Iversen on her book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; and the US government program for compensating atomic industry workers whose health was damaged by their jobs - IMPORTANT PRECEDENT FOR CURRENT CASES AT WIPP, USS REAGAN, HANFORD, MORE! Plus: Tweet the Pope to come out against nukes as part of climate change encyclical and in support of Sister Megan Rice; Two worker deaths in a single day at Fukushima Daiichi; sea animals dying in Tokyo aquarium, Hawaii, Pacific west coast; and if you eat Fukushima rice, YOU are the Numnutz of the Week!

Interviews: Author Kristen Iversen on her book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; and the US government program for compensating atomic industry workers whose health was damaged by their jobs - IMPORTANT PRECEDENT FOR CURRENT CASES AT WIPP, USS REAGAN, HANFORD, MORE! Plus: Tweet the Pope to come out against nukes as part of climate change encyclical and in support of Sister Megan Rice; Two worker deaths in a single day at Fukushima Daiichi; sea animals dying in Tokyo aquarium, Hawaii, Pacific west coast; and if you eat Fukushima rice, YOU are the Numnutz of the Week!

Interviews: Author Kristen Iversen on her book, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; and the US government program for compensating atomic industry workers whose health was damaged by their jobs - IMPORTANT PRECEDENT FOR CURRENT CASES AT WIPP, USS REAGAN, HANFORD, MORE! Plus: Tweet the Pope to come out against nukes as part of climate change encyclical and in support of Sister Megan Rice; Two worker deaths in a single day at Fukushima Daiichi; sea animals dying in Tokyo aquarium, Hawaii, Pacific west coast; and if you eat Fukushima rice, YOU are the Numnutz of the Week!