Nuclear Hotseat

INTERVIEWS: 

Kendra Ulrich, Nuclear Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, who explains what it's like to stand up solo and face down the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on their home turf -- and what the macro conversation is about getting San Onofre shut down.

Nuclear videographer Myla Reson asks Rep. Henry Waxman tough questions and gets brilliant answers, then explains exclusively to Nuclear Hotseat listeners the politics behind the exchange we just heard.  Fascinating insights!

PLUS:

Numnutz of the Week:

FirstEnergy's meltdown over the heroic goldfish of the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan.  How radioactive WERE they, eh...?

Two aquatic anti-nuclear protesters of unknown nationality broke into the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan, but could not survive the reactor water in their lemonade pitcher.  RIP.

• Palisades NPP in Michigan leaks "very slightly/mildly/diluted" radioactive water into Lake Michigan, but "there's no impact on health and safety!" (said no sane person, ever). 
• Duke dumps plans for 2 new nukes in North Carolina;
• 83-year-old nun, Sister Megan Gillespie Rice, and 2 others, face trial this week for embarrassing the government by peacefully breaking in to Oak Ridge nuclear facility, graffiti-ing and praying.
• Could depleted uranium be behind the US military's soaring suicide rate?
• Japanese mushrooms, bamboo sprouts found too radioactive even for the United States!
• KEWAUNEE IS HISTORY - 103 AND COUNTING DOWN!
• ... and who put the goldfish in Perry?  Don't tell me... Homer Simpson?

LINKS:

• 83-year-old nun, 2 others, and what the trial is all about.  Brilliantly written by Dan Zak:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2013/04/29/the-prophets-of-oak-ridge/
• Hanford hero Mike Geffre's struggle to get his bosses to understand the magnitude of the leak under the most nuclearly polluted location in the country and the threat to the Columbia River:   http://www.king5.com/news/investigators/Hanford-worker-pushed-WRPS-to-action-204789701.html" class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark">  http://www.king5.com/news/investigators/Hanford-worker-pushed-WRPS-to-action-204789701.html
• The US Use of Humans in Radiation Experiments: http://www.citywatchla.com/4box-right/5005-humans-used-for-radiation-experiments-a-shameful-chapter-in-us-history
• Depleted Uranium (DU) in Middle East implicated in GI suicides, psychiatric complaints? http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/10/02/gis-brains-fried-by-military-dispensed-nose-candy/

Nuclear Engineering at San Onofre (Photo: 10 News San Diego)

INTERVIEW:

When the LaSalle Nuclear Power Plant 125 miles from Chicago got hit with lightning on April 17, it set up a series of emergency shut-downs, unvented gas releases, and an untold amount of radiation let loose in the environment.  The issues are complex and deeply troubling.  Explaining the situation are Gail Snyder of the Nuclear Energy and Information Service (NEIS.org) and Andrew Kishner, who investigates technical nuclear issues and reports on them on his website, NuclearCrimes.org. 

PLUS:

• NYTimes says TEPCO "just hanging on," hasn't a clue;
• Japan refuses its responsibility to evacuate kids from Fukushima radiation zone;
• More peaceful Koodankulam protesters arrested in India;
• Radiation rises in Tokyo and no one knows -- or will admit to -- why;
• Entergy told to pay Red Cross over $700K for evacuation plan... and they doan wanna...! ;
• Leverett, Massachusetts, votes to abolish the NRC! (Would that it were so easy...)
• And then there's so much more!

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:

• 2nd Runner Up: Fox anchor finds possibility that radiation from Fukushima may be killing sea lions, "Wow, that would be astounding, and sad certainly."
• 1st Runner Up:  Pennsylvania truck from fracking site refused right to dump drill cuttings in its own company's landfill because of 10X permitted radiation levels... so it just goes looking for a different landfill that will let it dump.
• Winner: San Onofre Unit 3 leak "fixed" with plastic bags, tape, broomsticks (see: picture at the top).  Oy.

LINKS:

From Gail Snyder:

• Bradley, Illinois: Lake effect snow from Nuclear Power Facility Cooling Pond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGsz8gVxCOQ
• Bonfield, Illinois: Lake effect snow from Nuclear Power Facility Cooling Pond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oLmsmUdORI
• Dwight, Illinois: Lake effect snow from Nuclear Power Facility Cooling Pond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcITr_EWX7k

Keiko Ichikawa, author of "A Letter from Fukushima"

INTERVIEWS:

Three special interviews on the Legacy of Chernobyl and the implications to Fukushima and the future of the people of Japan:

• Chernobyl survivor Bonnie Kouneva, who as a 16-year-old lived in Bulgaria, 800 miles away from the nuclear disaster... but it wasn't far enough.
• Dr. Alexei Yablokov, who compiled over 5,000 research papers in multiple languages for the book, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, as well as co-founding Greenpeace, Russia.
• Dr. Janette Sherman, known for her work with Joseph Mangano on statistical studies indicating infant deaths and hypothyroidism in the US after Fukushima as well as editing the English translation of Alexei Yablokov's  book.

PLUS:

• Los Angeles City Council votes unanimously to tell NRC to hold So Cal Edison to an Adjudicated Evidentiary Hearing on San Onofre - a BIG WIN!
• Florida House committee passes bill to prevent Progress Energy from charging customers for the development of nuclear plants before they even obtain a license to build the sucker!
• Shut It Down Affinity Group gets arrested yet again for blocking the driveway of Entergy's Vermont Yankee NPP:

Ellen Graves (L) and Frances Crowe (R) - two Vermont Yankees blocking Vermont Yankee.  Photo by Hattie Nestle

•  NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:  US Nuclear Power and the Ebay Connection

LINKS:

• Friends of the Earth full story on the Los Angeles City Council's vote to demand an Adjudicated Evidentiary Hearing on San Onofre with the NRC and Southern California Edison:  http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2013-04-san-onofre-los-angeles-votes-to-oppose-reactor-restart
• Watch VP Joe Biden talk about nuclear in 2007; you'll be surprised!
• Video on non-seismically qualified Spent Fuel Pools in the US:

 
FEATURED: 

You may have heard about the sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan suing TEPCO for their radiation exposure, but you haven't heard the whole story.  "The devil's in the details," as they say, and the details in this story from former quartermasters Jaime Plym and Maurice Enis promises to break your heart and and make you angry.  The first audio is a presentation the two did at the Dr. Caldicott/PSR  Symposium on the Medical and Ecological Consequences of Fukushima.  The show closes out with uncensored, unedited audio from the press conference that followed, unheard until now.

PLUS:

• Numnutz of the Week for Nuclear Boneheadedness: Three candidates, but the winner is the Japanese triathlon that has 6-year-olds swimming in a lake so radioactive, it killed off a release of 80-million smelt eggs last year and the four fish they caught to test all had radiation levels more than 3x legal limit.  This is what governmental genocide looks like.

The new piece of "jewelry" we all may be wearing soon?

• EPA thinks it's just dandy for 1 in 23 of us to get cancer and they much prefer that to the silly old standard of  no more than 1 human-being-American-citizen in 10,000;
• NRC ignores Sen. Boxer/Rep. Markey to rev up for what looks like The Battle of San Onofre;
• Los Angeles radiation shows spike of 419%;
• all 7 Fukushima underground pools leaking radioactive water into the Pacific;
• 50-year old radiation waste found in barrels sunk to the bottom of the English Channel;
• US committed secret Nazi-style radiation tests on helpless US citizens; might they still be doing that today?
• ...and much, much more!

LINKS:

Michael Collins on radiation increase of 419% for Los Angeles:Ω</li><li><strong>A Symposium on the Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster</strong> - videos and Powerpoint presentations of both days: <a href="http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=hcf ">http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=hcf </a></li><li><strong>Harvey Wasserman</strong>:<a href=" www.Solartopia.org "> www.Solartopia.org </a></li><li><strong>Comment here on EPA relaxation of guidelines for radiation exposure:  </strong><a href="http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0268</a></li><li><strong>Article" class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0268">http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2007-0268</a></li><li><strong>Article on EPA relaxation of guidelines for radiation exposure:  </strong><a href="http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/epa-seeks-comment-controversial-nuclear-response-guide/  ">http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/epa-seeks-comment-controversial-nuclear-response-guide/  </a></li>

INTERVIEW:  Radiation from Fukushima, nuclear reactors and leftover atmospheric testing continue to compromise the safety of our food.  Learn the dangers of radiation contamination -- and how to take action -- from two members of the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN): Cindy Folkers of Beyond Nuclear and Mary Beth Brangan of EON (Ecological Options Network).  Then go sign the FFAN petitions:

• Sign On Petition: http://signon.org/sign/keep-harmful-radioactive-1.fb26?source=c.fb&r_by=7470505
• FDA Petition:  http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FDA-2013-P-0291-0001
• Beyond Nuclear:  www.BeyondNuclear.org
• Ecological Options Network: www.Eon3.net

PLUS:

• Numnutz of the Week for Nuclear Boneheadedness:  White House draft report calls for steep rollback of standards for radioactive waste clean-up to levels expected to cause cancer in 1 in 23 people, while EPA spokesmodel tells the public to "put on their big boy pants and suck it up."
• Former NRC Chair Gregory Jaczko calls for phase-out of current US nuke fleet.
• Southern California Edison tries to TELL the NRC that they WILL approve a restart at San Onofre by June 1.
• NOAA testing to learn if Fukushima radiation is behind sea lion beachings and die-offs in Southern California.
• Fukushima tank leaks 120 tons of radioactive water, runoff channeled into a different tank... and that one leaks, too!
• TEPCO knocks Fukushima power offline yet again, while setting only mousetraps to catch potentially world-ending rats;
• Film critic Roger Ebert suspected radiation of causing his cancer, to which he succumbed this week after a decades-long battle.
• And much more!

LINKS:

• Cindy Folkers  on Food Safety at the Dr. Helen Caldicott/Physicians for Social Responsibility Symposium on the Medical and Ecological Consequences of Fukushima: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXhlGs5BnnI
• Link to all video from Dr. Caldicott's symposium:  http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=hcf# 
• Timothy Mousseau's 10 questions for the nuclear industry that show how dangerous it really is: http://japanfocus.org/-Timothy-A__Mousseau/3921
• Kindergartener Savana Urry's video report on Fukushima:  http://environews.tv/kindergarten-fukushima-science-project-says-it-all-now-tuna-fish-in-california-have-cesium-yuk/
• Iowa Petition to stop nuke plant from being built: http://www.change.org/petitions/midamerican-energy-company-stop-the-plan-to-build-a-nuclear-plant-in-central-iowa