Nuclear Hotseat

INTERVIEWS:

• Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear goes after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's latest actions in speeding approval of all nuclear reactor license extensions and  new builds, plus highlights the votes of compromised lame duck (now former) Commissioner Magwood's blatant, possibly illegal conflict of interest.
  FOR SAMPLE WORDING FROM KEVIN KAMPS TO SEND TO SEN. BARBARA BOXER THAT ASKS HER TO REQUIRE HARDENED ONSITE STORAGE (HOSS) FOR HIGH LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORED AT REACTORS, SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 15 oldest reactors, all built for only 40 years of service, now licensed for 20 year extensions and under consideration for an additional 20 years of operation. Feeling safe yet?

• Don Hancock, Executive Director of Southwest Information and Research Center, updates us on the findings in the radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP site) in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  Even the EPA couldn't ignore the shocking discrepancies in recorded times, radiation data and missing documents.

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:
What - the US doesn't have enough nuclear waste of its own, it has to import it back from countries that use our technology?!?!?????  Well... yes, and 23,000 liters of the junk is on its way to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from Canada.

PLUS:

• TEPCO OOPS - 800+ pound console falls into Fukushima Unit 3 spent fuel pool... during an operation to remove debris from Unit 3 spent fuel pool;
• 104 Fukushima children now diagnosed with thyroid cancer;
• Harrowing testimony about the meltdowns as they happened by former Fukushima Chief, the late Masao Yoshida, released to the public in Japanese and English.  (LINK to English translation of nine articles about Yoshida's testimony:  CLICK HERE)

The late Masao Yoshida, Hero of Fukushima

• Millstone reactors' May 25 dual emergency shutdowns DID release radiation to Waterford, CT, area despite operator Dominion's claims to the contrary;
• and German activists chain themselves to railroad tracks to stop uranium ore shipment. Rock 'n roll!

LINKS:

Comparison of Chernobyl and Fukushima radiation impact on animals and plants, published by the Chernobyl Research Initiative: CLICK HERE

WORDING  TO USE WITH SEN. BARBARA BOXER, ASKING HER TO REQUIRE HARDENED ONSITE STORAGE (HOSS) FOR HIGH LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORED AT REACTORS - FROM KEVIN KAMPS:

Action Alert: Prevent Radioactive Waste Pool Fires! Stop Mobile Chernboyls! Support Hardened On-Site Storage!

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) chairs the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, with oversight on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and nuclear power industry.

Please email her via the EPW Committee office web form. Urge Sen. Boxer to require Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS) for high-level radioactive wastes (HLRWs) stored at reactors. HOSS is endorsed by hundreds of environmental groups representing all 50 states. HLRWs are currently stored in indoor pools, and outdoor dry casks, vulnerable to accidents, attacks, natural disasters, leaks, and catastrophic fires.

If you are a California resident, you can also fill out the web form for Sen. Boxer's constituent office.

Ironically enough, CA's other U.S. Senator, Dianne Feinstein, would make these risks worse. Sen. Feinstein chairs the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee. In Section 308 of the Fiscal Year 2015 Senate Energy & Water Appropriations Bill, Sen. Feinstein has proposed providing $89 million of taxpayer money towards rushing irradiated nuclear fuel onto the roads, rails, and waterways, bound for "centralized" or "consolidated interim storage" sites. These are more aptly described as de facto permanent parking lot dumps. They are targeted at Native American reservations, already contaminated Department of Energy sites, as well as nuclear power plants. HLRW trucks, trains, and barges risk Mobile Chernobyls, floating Fukushimas, and dirty bombs on wheels, and would bring us no closer to a permanent solution. Email Sen. Feinstein via her constituent web form, and urge her to support HOSS instead.

You can also phone both Senators' Washington, D.C. Member offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. If you would rather phone or write Sen. Boxer's in-state office nearest you, see her listings. Sen. Feinstein also lists her local offices, as well.

 JON STEWART TWEET-OF-THE-WEEK:

Avoid rice in Singapore, Jon; it's imported f/Fukushima! Now enriched w/99 Bq cesium per kilogram! #NuclearHotseat #newCNNshows #nonukes

— Libbe HaLevy (@NuclearHotseat) August 27, 2014

EPISODE #166 - LISTEN HERE:

TO DOWNLOAD, CLICK HERE

EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL REPORT:  The USS Reagan v. TEPCO Hearing

Nuclear Hotseat's exclusive coverage of this week's hearing in Federal Court in the $1 billion lawsuit on behalf of sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan against Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).  The sailors got hit with lethal levels of radiation while on an humanitarian aid mission to provide post-earthquake/tsunami aid to Japanese victims... and never were warned of the danger they were sailing into by Fukushima-Daiichi plant operator TEPCO.  Interviews with attorneys Charles Bonner (also heard in Nuclear Hotseat #129 & 138) and Paul Garner; USS Reagan veteran Steve Simmons (also heard in Nuclear Hotseat #159 & 161) and his wife Summer Simmons.

ADDRESS FOR JUDGE JANIS L. SAMMARTINO:
Edward J. Schwartz United States Courthouse
221 West Broadway, Suite 4136, Courtroom 4A
San Diego, CA  92101

(l to r) Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy, attorney Charles Bonner, Summer Simmons, USS Reagan veteran Steve Simmons, attorney Paul Garner

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:  Does the nuclear industry actually pay its trolls to remove articles from academic databases and think that's going to stop us?

A Nuclear Troll, trying to get a clue...

PLUS: 

• Change.org petition to pardon three anti-nuclear activists who conducted a peaceful protest of nuclear weapons:  84-year-old Sister Megan Rice, and two US military veterans, 58-year-old Gregory Boertje-Obed and 64-year-old, two-tour Vietnam vet Michael Walli.  Click Here to Sign.

Here's the weekly Jon Stewart/Daily Show Tweet; please retweet and favorite: 

Fukushima nuke fuel exploded to 15 miles f/Tokyo suburb. Ready to order 2020 Olympic tix yet? #newCNNshows #nonukes http://t.co/z8zrYYcxU4

— Libbe HaLevy (@NuclearHotseat) August 13, 2014

FEATURED INTERVIEW:  Kumar Sundaram, India's "Anti-Nuclear Gandhi," as he concludes a successful two week trip to Japan to warn the country about dangers inherent in a planned nuclear pact between Japan and India. 

Kumar Sundaram

While in Japan, Kumar spoke with the media, networked with activists, addressed the weekly protest in front of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe-baby's home… and went into the Fukushima exclusion zone. He provides a chilling first-hand account of what it's like within six miles of the still deadly Fukushima Daiichi meltdown.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/dianuke/

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:  Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Facebook?  Let's shoot nuclear fish in a barrel!  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuclear-Regulatory-Commission/1436993716561689

NUMNUTZ OF LAST WEEK FOLLOW-UP:  Beverly Kerr, Associate Director of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League

BREDL's Beverly Kerr

(BREDL) weighs in on last week's Numnutz about Oak Ridge National (Nuclear) Laboratory's scuttled program to provide Southern accent reduction classes to its employees... at $805 a pop! www.BREDL.org

PLUS:

• Thyroid cancer outbreak in Fukushima children now labeled "epidemic" by Japanese professor
• TEPCO -- clueless as usual -- keeps pretending they know what they're doing, but admits that they're dumping more radioactive water into the Pacific - oy!
• Chernobyl adds second arch of second sarcophagi as they build the most elaborate set of nesting Matryoshka dolls ever seen.

LINK:

Excellent, exhaustive compilation article by A Green Road on radiation found in Japanese cars and car parts: http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2014/01/fukushima-radiation-contaminated-cars.html

 Abe Road?  

INTERVIEWS:

The United States military just issued a Congressionally-mandated report that says, in effect, that Fukushima's radiation could not possibly be responsible for the catastrophic illnesses being experienced by the sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan, despite all appearances and common sense to the contrary.  So two genuine experts take on that report:

• US Navy (retired) Steve Simmons, a 17-year veteran of the service who was on the USS Reagan and three years later is confined to a wheelchair with a wide range of physical illnesses.  He takes on the lack of logic in the report, as well providing his deeply personal response.  (Steve  was originally interviewed on Nuclear Hotseat #159 http://ow.ly/yWnkf)
• Joseph Mangano, Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project, offers an epidemiological analysis of that report, pointing out flaws in its premises and its historic similarity to other occasions when the US government downplayed nuclear dangers.

USS Reagan sailors attempting on-deck radiation clean-up

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:
If the officers in charge of arming and firing US nuclear missiles can't pass their tests, the Air Force has the answer: change the way they're graded!  Self esteem and anti-bullying classes next on the schedule...

PLUS:

• Ma Nature's getting really pissed as monkeys in Japan show low blood counts and cesium in their muscle tissue, caribou herds in Alaska hit record lows, and starfish keep dying and sliming up the beaches of North America's west coast.
• Fukushima's ice wall is less of a popsicle, at best like a Slushie, and ain't gonna stop no water no how.  Didn't anyone ever explain to the Japanese that salt water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water?  No wonder all that ice they dumped in just melted...

TEPCO workers try to stop the nuclear party, but there ain't enough ice in the world unless someone clicks and drags Japan to the Arctic Circle.

• Genuine expert invited to the Japanese Ministry of Environment's Expert Meeting Discussing Health Support After the Fukushima Nuclear Accident tries to discuss providing health support to local residents... and is not allowed to talk by the meeting Chair, who is also the man who invited him.