Nuclear Hotseat

INTERVIEW: 

Award-winning investigative reporter Susannah Frame from KING 5 News in Seattle has not only covered the problems at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington, she has broken several of the most important recent stories.  Listen to what a real reporter goes through to get the hottest nuclear news and put it out into mainstream media. 

Susannah Frame, KING 5 News, NBC-TV Seattle

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:  Japan opens the beaches near Fukushima by claiming no radiation... the week after TEPCO admits that the ocean's radiation levels are the highest since the nuclear disaster began. WTF???  Step away from the ocean!

PLUS:

• 30 Greenpeace activists invade French nuclear power plant to make a point about nuclear "safety;"

Greenpeace activist (in red jacket on girders) is one of 30 who breached security at France's Tricastin NPP.

• Switzerland outraged after radioactive cesium found in lake near nuke plant that is used for drinking water;
• Kudankulam activists "drop dead" as new nuclear facility fires up to criticality for the first time;

Protesters of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in India "drop dead" in protest of the reactor's start-up.

• NRC DUCK! Report on the usual "unusual occurrences" - nuclear accidents all over the place in just one week!
• Dr. Masaru Emoto, know for his groundbreaking work on the Healing Messages of Water and from his appearance in "What the Bleep Do We Know?" leads a Blessing of the Waters outside the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Reactor in southern California.  (Pictured: Gene Stone, Hopi tribal participant) 

Sacred blessing of the waters outside the San Onofre Nuclear Never-Again-Generating Station

LINKS:

• Fairewinds Energy Education podcast: Arnie Gundersen and Marco Kaltofen on Japan's radioactive "black dust" - http://fairewinds.org/podcast/japans-black-dust-with-marco-kaltofen

Ft. Calhoun nuclear reactors surrounded by the flooding Missouri River (June-July, 2011)

INTERVIEW:  Remember when Ft. Calhoun was a flood-surrounded nuclear island that threatened to pull a Fukushima?  Nebraska energy activist LaVerne Thraen brings us up to date with ongoing problems at Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) that's keeping Ft. Calhoun offline, including floods, fires and that old standby, politics. 

PLUS: 

• Fukushima radiation levels soaring for "unexplained reasons" according to TEPCO;
• TEPCO failings revealed by Japanese comedienne Mako Oshidori;
• The death of Fukushima 50 hero Masao Yoshida, the man who in a very real way saved our world;

Leader of the Fukushima 50, Masao Yoshida (1955-2013), whose defiance of TEPCO saved us all. Namaste.

• Japan's Labor Democratic Party pushes for nuke restarts and nuke-adjacent mayors agree;
• Rats attack Fukushima Daiini;
• Japan selling nuke technology to Vietnam (what could possibly go wrong?!?);
• Scandal! North Anna operator Dominion Virginia Power covered up existence of fault lines to NRC;
• San Onofre operator Southern California Edison bemoans nuke shutdown as it dumps chemicals into ocean and buys a solar company.  Mixed metaphor, anyone?

New Cape Cod anti-nuke group, Down Cape Downwinders, makes their major talking point graphic.

LINKS:

• Interview by Japanese comedienne Mako Oshidori revealing TEPCO's horrific incompetence at Fukushima:  http://www.save-children-from-radiation.org/2013/06/23/stunning-story-from-a-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-power-plant-worker-interview-by-comedienne-oshidori-mako/
• Voices of Evacuees: Joint Lawsuit Begins in Hokkaido http://www.jfissures.org/2013/07/03/voices-of-evacuees-joint-lawsuit-begins-in-hokkaido/#.UdSSsC_4Ogk.facebook

Fukushima native Godzilla decides to get even with TEPCO.

INTERVIEW:  Kimberly Roberson -- nutritionist, author and founder of the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN)  on the latest in food/radiation safety, plus the new FFAN petition with the FDA to get "allowable" radiation limits dropped.  She's joined by Sean Witzling of Citizens for Health, who explains this new petition process.  Once you've listened, go sign and comment:

• http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2013-P-0291-0001

FFAN Ad Promoting FDA Food Safety Petition - GO SIGN IT NOW!

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:

The US "alternative energy" loan guarantee program guaranteed to give billions... to nukes!

PLUS:

• Scientists and medical experts take on the UN over Fukushima radiation report;
• Energy Dept. considers dumping $3.7 billion boondoggle Savannah River Site;
• Davis-Besse shuts down - again;
• Millions of shrimp-like krill dead on beaches of northern California, Oregon;
• India/Russia nuclear liability head-butting may permanently sink proposed Koodankulam #3,4,5 & 6, even as #1 may be commissioned "at any time;"
• TEPCO shareholders demanding the utility dump nukes;
• SCANDAL ALERT:  In Japan, funds for recovery from the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster diverted to cover utility companies
• In historic public vote, of Japan's nine political parties, EIGHT come out against nukes:
  

In historic public vote, 8 of Japan's 9 major political parties come out against nukes.

Davis (R) and Besse (L) at home downwind of the nuclear disaster-in-the-making that bears their names.

INTERVIEWS:

Michael Keegan, Chair of the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, fills us in on how San Onofre strategy will impact the campaign to shut down Davis-Besse in Ohio.

     Links:

• Beyond Nuclear - http://www.beyondnuclear.org/
• Citizens Environment Alliance SW Ontario - http://www.citizensenvironmentalliance.org/
• Don't Waste Michigan - http://dwmi.homestead.com/
• Sierra Club Ohio - http://ohiosierraclub.org/

MamaBears Brigade's Dr. Catherine "Wind" Euler and native American Havasupai Waters on their continuing protest of uranium mining at the Grand Canyon, including elevated radiation readings on tourist walkways.

Links:

• MamaBears Against Nukes - https://www.facebook.com/mamabears.againstnukes?fref=ts&ref=br_tf
• Article on recent protests:  https://lajicarita.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/protesters-in-santa-fe-say-no-uranium-mining/

Nuclear Tightrope at Grand Canyon as Uranium Mines Create Hotter Tourist Hot Spots than Nik Wallenda

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK: Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority

PLUS:

• Hanford leak is "worst case scenario;"
• MacFarlane survives Sen. Boxer's wrath at NRC refusal to hand over San Onofre documents, gets re-nominated as NRC Chair;
• David Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists provides the NRC "DUCK!" Report on Non-Detecting Examinations;
• Elevated levels of tritium, strontium found in harbor at Fukushima Daiichi;
• Yablokov takes on the UNSCEAR report minimizing cancer risks from Fukushima;
• First of the Fukushima 50 dies of lung cancer.

LINKS for the NRC "DUCK!" Report: 

• Union of Concerned Scientists - NRC slides on their NDE (non-destructive examinations aka non-detecting examinations):  http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1315/ML13159A009.pdf

The Boys and Girls on the Nuclear Bus, June 4, 2013:

(l-r) Gregory Jaczko, Kendra Ulrich, Cathy Iwane, PM Naoto Kan, Arnie Gundersen, Shaun Burnie, Peter Bradford, Eric Pica

http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/NuclearHotseat105-EXCLUSIVENaotoKan.mp3 

FEATURED INTERVIEW:

In this Nuclear Hotseat Exclusive, former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan shares about his anti-nuclear political moves in Japan, social media, and makes a startling request of Nuclear Hotseat's Producer/Host Libbe HaLevy.  We also hear the second half of his presentation at the "Fukushima Daiichi Disaster: Lessons for California" panel discussion that took place on June 4, 2013 in San Diego.

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK FOR NUCLEAR BONEHEADEDNESS:

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) for holding a "bizarre bazaar" to sell Fukushima produce at their company's HQ in Tokyo.

PLUS:

• NRC Staff want to void Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) ruling that played a significant role in Southern California Edison's decision to shut down San Onofre.
• Hanford Site still leaking, getting worse.
• Brockovich investigator gets involved in St. Louis Landfill fire, now only 1,000 feet from buried nuclear waste.
• Nevada Governor Sandoval urged to block shipments of uranium waste.
• Radwaste barrels litter English Channel.
• Audiences reject pro-nuke Pandora's Promise, now renamed Pandora's Box-Office Flop.