Nuclear Hotseat

Beverly Findlay-Kaneko (L) and Setsuko Kida, mid-interview (via Skype) on Nuclear Hotseat.  Setsuko is holding a book of photographs on Fukushima by Munesuke Yamamoto that is banned from bookstores in Japan.

INTERVIEW IN JAPANESE HERE:

第127回のリビーハリビーのニュークリアホットシートは福島第一原発避難民木田節子さんへのインタビューです。 このリンクは日本人の為に日本語のみに編集したものです。 木田さんには原発事故発生時の経験や日本の原子力政策に反対する声を上げることになった経緯や今回のアメリカ訪問についてお話ししていただきます。 彼女は活動家のネットワークからの要請を受け、福島第一原発事故直後に空母ロナルドレーガンの乗組員が高レベルの放射線被曝をし健康被害を受けたとして東 京電力を訴えている件で彼らを支援するためにやってきました。

http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/aa5dde9a-7fbf-4ca7-9b8e-b877a9b8b7b7.mp3

INTERVIEW:  Setsuko Kida, a "nuclear refugee" from Fukushima, lived midway between Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daiini when the nuclear disaster began in 2011.  She's been in the U.S. to support the sailors of the USS Ronald Reagan in their lawsuit against TEPCO for health-destroying radiation contamination from Fukushima.  She tells a harrowing story of events in the immediate aftermath of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, then gives us a picture of activism in Japan in the face of presumed passage of the Secrecy Act.

(L-R) Miki Bay, Shinshuu Hida, Setsuko Kida, Beverly Findlay-Kaneko, trip organizers Yumiko Kan and Vicki Nelson - at San Diego Japanese Southern Baptist Church.

LINK to Nuclear Hotseat #116 interview about Japanese activism with Beverly Findlay-Kaneko:

http://www.nuclearhotseat.com/116-japan-fukushima-29-months-wbeverly-findlay-kaneko/ 

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:  Sir Paul McCartney?  Yep!

PLUS: 

• Japan Diet's lower house passes State Secrets Protection Bill amid fears of growing fascism and censorship;
• World's engineers express concern over TEPCO's attempts to remove fuel rods from Unit 4 spent fuel pool;
• Unofficial reports (which will probably be banned under the Secrecy Act) show Fukushima worker deaths already over 4,000;
• TEPCO president Hirose warns the world that nuclear energy is "not fully safe;"
• Sen. Boxer boxes NRC's MacFarlane over her agency's refusal to release documents to senate committee investigation;
• Sea animals massing in unprecedented numbers in California's Monterrey Bay - trying to escape the Pacific Ocean and Fukushima's radiation?

LINK:

"Women of Fukushima"

Spent Fuel Pool 4 at Fukushima

INTERVIEW:  Harvey Wasserman has been an anti-nuclear/pro-alternative energy activist for more than 40 years.  He's author or co-author of a dozen books, writes for the Huffington Post and edits the www.nukefree.org website. His Green Power & Wellness Show is at www.progressiveradionetwork.com. 

Harvey Wasserman (in cap) and friends delivering 150,000 signature petition to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.  L-R: Green Party's Kevin Zeese, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Alice Slater, Jill Stein, Margaret Flowers.

INTERVIEW EXCERPT:  Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education (www.Fairewinds.org) explains exactly what we're facing as TEPCO begins removal of fuel rods from Spent Fuel Pool 4 at Fukushima.  (Excerpted from Coast-to-Coast AM with John B. Wells, Nov. 9, 2013 - http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2013/11/09)

Arnie eviscerates the TEPCO "cartoon" about removing the fuel rods:

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:

Evil Numnutz to Dr. Shunichi Yamashita, the man who advised Japanese doctors NOT to give Potassium Iodide after Fukushima because -- as a so-called "expert" -- he knew that radiation impact would be "minimal."  When he found out how far the radiation had traveled, his respose?  "Oops!"  OOPS?!?!???  YamaSHITa is now enshrined in the Josef Mengele wing of the Nuclear Numnutz Hall of Shame.

RADCAST:

Radiation readings around the US (the international report starts next week) with Mimi German. 

PLUS: 

• Robots nab first pics of the leaks (two) at the bottom of Unit 1;
• PM Abe-Baby pushes Secrecy Law but his wife Akie Abe makes no secret of her opposition to his nuclear policy;
• Akie Abe, outspoken critic of Japan's nuclear policy, whose husband just happens to be... nuke-lovin' Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe-Baby!
• Increased hypothyroidism found in US west coast infants born first nine months after Fukushima;
• Alaska wildlife in heartbreaking collapse, including polar bears, walruses, seals, birds;
• Alaska experts find Fukushima radiation in 15 separate ocean species
• All this and a tornado hits a Kentucky nuclear fuel factory. 

LINKS:

• Harvey Wasserman, links to his radio program, petitions and thousands of articles:  www.NukeFree.org.
• Report on thyroid damage to California infants born immediately after the Fukushima disaster began: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2164974/fukushima_fallout_damaged_thyroid_glands_of_california_babies.html

CNN gets lousy ratings, bad reviews, bad PR from Pandora.

INTERVIEW:  Veteran activist Mimi German, Co-Creator of RadCast, explains this Rad-ical new service to provide daily and weekly radiation "weather" reports for use by mainstream and online media.  Within days of its launch on Oregon radio, RadCast got picked up by Thom Hartmann for his daily rt.com show.  Immediately after the interview, catch the first RadCast report for Nuclear Hotseat as it becomes a new weekly feature! 

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:  The country of Belarus.  They got hit with 60% of Chernobyl's radiation... but now they want to build their own nukes?  Did Chernobyl fry their common sense?

PLUS:

• TEPCO delayed start of decommissioning Spent Fuel Pool 4 for two weeks to conduct tests, but they still plan to begin by November 22 despite international outcry to take all authority at Fukushima away from the criminally incompetent company;

Would you trust TEPCO to clean this out without triggering the end of the world?

• Pandora's Promise poops out, handing CNN lousy ratings and devastating reviews while allowing anti-nuclear experts Ralph Nader, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps and Sierra Club's Michael Brune air time they would not have otherwise gotten;
• Morningstar analysts make it financially official: New-Build Nukes are Dead is what they tell their institutional investors;
• Forbes names six reactors most likely to close: Indian Point, Ginna, Fitzpatrick, Three Mile Island, David Besse and Pilgrim;
• Dallas-based Luminant dumps plans to build two new nukes in North Texas.  Yeehah!

LINK TO PETITION: 

Arnie Gundersen petition to remove TEPCO from the decommissioning of Fukushima.  Please sign, share:

http://www.nukefree.org/new-fuku-petition-remove-tepco-you-remove-fuel  

US Energy Secretary Earnest Moniz well on his way to blackmailing Japan into indemnifying GE over Fukushima.

INTERVIEW:  Norbert Suchanek is the founder and General Director of the Uranium Film Festival, which covers all aspects of the nuclear issue.   A native of Germany, Suchanek is a journalist, author, filmmaker and activist living in Rio de Janeiro.  He shares with Nuclear Hotseat listeners how the festival got started, his vision for an international nuclear film archive, and how you – yes you! – can get your film into the 2014 festival.  The Uranium Film Festival comes to the United States this month (November, 2013) for showings in New Mexico and Albuquerque, with stops in early 2014 in New York and Washington, D.C.  Learn more about the Uranium Film Festival at: www.UraniumFilmFestival.org. 

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK: 

Japan is offering pregnant women and their children "a new, very good house" -- for free!  The only problem?  IT'S IN FUKUSHIMA!  Special bonus: non-stop x-rays for the whole family.  (What sociopath thought up this one?)

PLUS:

• Amid a rising chorus of media, doctors, engineers and governments warning of the dangers of Spent Fuel Pool 4 at Fukushima, TEPCO forced to delay the start of Armageddon and puts off start of removal of fuel rods for at least two weeks - PHEWH!
• Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe-Baby suddenly discovers an intense desire for international help with the nuclear disaster on his northeast coast.
• US Energy Secretary Earnest Moniz visits Fukushima, declares it "stunning" and "daunting," then holds U.S. help hostage until Japan signs a no-liability agreement indemnifying all nuclear manufactureers and suppliers -- meaning reactor designer General Electric will be permanently off the hook.
• Pandora's Promise airs this week on CNN, but activist protests forced the network to provide airtime for the anti-nuke position for Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear.  

LINKS:

• India Shouldn’t Buy What Japan Is Selling - on problems at Koodankulam NPP with Russian-supplied parts: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-03/india-shouldn-t-buy-what-japan-is-selling.html
• German TV exposes UN coverup of Fukushima cancers:

TEPCO plans to begin removing fuel rods from Spent Fuel Pool 4 at Fukushima as of November 6, 2013 - putting at risk the equivalent of 14,000 Hiroshima bombs worth of nuclear radiation.  This could be an extermination level event for the human race. 

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education (www.Fairewinds.org) explains exactly why TEPCO cannot be trusted with this act and what should be done... before it's too late.  (Interview extracted from Nuclear Hotseat #117, September 10, 2013 .)

LISTEN HERE:





DOWNLOAD HERE:

http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/bf47ad48-e4a8-2be4-3a5b-a36399681be0.mp3

 

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Fukushima Spent Fuel Pool 4[/caption]