Nuclear Hotseat

INTERVIEW:

Torgen Johnson is a Harvard-educated Urban Planner with a professional degree in Architecture from USC.  He brings a unique perspective to the nuclear conversation based upon three separate professional disciplines.  As a resident of southern California who lives near San Onofre, he interprets the risks to community and accumulated wealth from a single major accident at SanO.

PLUS:

• Passionate final word from producer/host Libbe HaLevy
• Japan 7.4 double-quake raises new concerns about the SFP at Unit 4
• UN tries to straightjacket international nuclear conversation
• The WHO (World Health Organization, not the band) actually has the gall to say there's no health danger from radiation at Fukushima .
• Thousands join P-MANE at Koodankulam to again blockade the sea in ongoing protests against the NPP going online.
• Researchers are going to study the health impact of uranium mines on Navajo children... 30 years after the mines were closed.  Timing is everything...
• And, of course, much more...

RECOMMENDED BOOKS, ARTICLES and PODCASTS:

• Joe Mangano and Dr. Janette Sherman, MD, published Double Your Trouble with Nuclear Power in Counterpunch - KAPOW!  The whole anti-nuclear argument, up to date and ready to fly:  http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/05/double-your-trouble-with-nuclear-power/
• Joe Mangano, one of the authors of the Counterpunch article, is the author of, "MAD SCIENCE: The Nuclear Power Experiment," of which Alec Baldwin who writes in the forward:  "Joe Mangano is the constant, tireless voice that has helped keep me linked to reports from the front lines of the battle to expose the staggering risks to public health posed by nuclear power . . . Joe has been one of the most dedicated, intelligent and even-handed public activists I have ever known. He has also proven to be one of the most effective, on a battlefield where gains are measured in inches, if not centimeters." http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/mad-science/
• Michael Collins (Enviroreporter.com) wrote an extensive article on Boeing's PR blitz to hide the leftover nuclear dangers of the Santa Susana Field Lab from neighbors in Los Angeles' Simi Valley: http://www.enviroreporter.com/2012/12/dirty-deeds/all/1/
• Arnie Gundersen's podcast from Fairewinds Energy Education on the impact of the 7.4 (then thought to be a 7.3) earthquake:  http://fairewinds.org/content/what-are-consequences-siting-nuclear-plant-seismically-active-area
  

TEPCO-CAM OF FUKUSHIMA - VIDEO OF 7.4 EARTHQUAKE: (go to 2:35)

Mutated insect (note leg growing out of its head on the Left), with thanks to Fukushima Diary:

SPOTLIGHT:

San Onofre really heated up last week:

• Possible sabotage at Unit 3 now being investigated by the FBI;
• Radwaste steam generator leaking radiation at the SanO gates;
• Buddhist monks in San Clemente praying/fasting/chanting/meditating for an end to nuclear;
• NRC/SCE public meeting on SCE planned restart muzzles activists (as usual)... and Nuclear Hotseat is there!

PLUS:

• Greenpeace releases weather balloon to track potential Darlington radiation release at Canadian nuke summit;
• Whistleblowers charge NRC with valuing secrecy over safety;
• Oyster Creek springs a leak post-Sandy;
• Chernobyl getting a new containment structure ('cause the sarcophagus is falling apart);
• and the body/mind connection betrays SCE's biggest lie and weakest link.

BONUS:

Enenews.com, one of the most reliable sources for nuclear information, recently compiled a list of the 33 top headlines/articles of the year to date.  Even if you're familiar with the individual stories, seeing them all together is a mind-blower.  Check it out here:

http://enenews.com/top-33-headlines-nrcs-fukushima-foia-releases
Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy asks her question at the Southern California Edison/Nuclear Regulatory Commission public meeting on SCE's plans for a San Onofre restart (video courtesy Myla Reson):

This is the Buddhist monks' prayer/fast/meditation vigil site: 

FEATURED INTERVIEWS:

Hear from four activists involved with the battle to stop the San Onofre restart as we head into this Friday's public meeting between the NRC, Southern California Edison and (hopefully squeezing in there, eventually) the public.  Host Libbe HaLevy interviews:

• Video activist Myla Reson
• Gary Headrick, head of San Clemente Green (www.SanClementeGreen.org)
• Gene Stone, founder of Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (www.ResidentsOrganizedforaSafeEnvironment.org)
• Ray Lutz, an engineer and National Coordinator for Citizens' Oversight (www.citizensoversight.org)

Learn about the politics, the spin, the manipulation... and how Buddhist monks came to be fasting and praying for six days outside San Onofre's main gate.

PLUS:

• UN chastises Japan for post-Fukushima incompetence and cruelty to its own citizens;
• UK activists successfully blockade Hinkley NPP;
• Illinois provides free potassium iodide to residents within ten miles of only one of its reactors (why not the other five locations?);
• and South Korea wonders if cracks in their nuke plant control rod tunnels will impact their efforts to export nuclear technology to other countries (ya think?!?).

United Nations special rapporteur and health investigator Anand Grover on Japan's shameful actions in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster: