Nuclear Hotseat

Interview w/Cecile Pineda, author of "Devil's Tango: How I Learned the Fukushima Step By Step," an eminently readable mosaic of information on the nuclear situation -- terrific for the person in your life who hasn't a clue but is willing to risk getting one!

• Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) publicly acknowledges the risks of Fukushima Unit 4 and pushes for international support in eliminating the risk;
• TEPCO starts covering Unit 4;
• Exelon's Limerick nuke plant leaks several thousand gallons of radioactive water into Philadelphia's drinking water source;
• Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point nuke plant fined for "forgetting" to report a 7-month power outage in its emergency preparedness center;
• Japan to be nuke-free on May 5, but nursery school children fed radioactive mushrooms;
• European pro-nukers try to get subsidies from the EU budget paid for by anti-nuke countries;
• California Nuclear Initiative on hold until 2012; 

Activist Alert! -- NRC Commissioner Kristine L. Svinicki's term ends June 30 unless she gets Senate approval for another 5 years. She voted against the implementation of safety concerns spotlighted in the NRC's Near Term Report on Fukushima Safety. Send letters to your US senators and let's get someone in there who cares about "protecting people and the environment," shall we?  Learn how to contact your US Senator here: 

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

• Interview with Gene Stone of ROSE on visit by NRC Chairman Jaczko and Sen. Feinstein to San Onofre last week in the wake of burst pipes and pipe degradation in the new steam generators.
• ACTIVIST ALERT:  Requests for letters to the NRC and live bodies to show up for San Onofre demo on April 28.
• CONTACT INFO FOR CHAIRMAN JACZKO:  U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001 1-800-368-5642, 301-415-7000; www.nrc.gov
• Fukushima shown to be 85 times worse than Chernobyl;
• Newly leaked Japanese faxes show TEPCO knew it was the quake, not the tsunami, that caused the reactor damage;
• UK nukes at risk over possible downgrade of credit rating of two energy behemoths;
• NRC finds last years Ft. Calhoun fire of "high safety significance" [it took them a year to figure that out?];
• UC Berkeley tests SF area milk and discovers almost double EPA's maxiumum contaminant level for Cesium 137;
• and Japan paying Chinese tourists to come to Fukushima, see the sights, take pictures and post them online.  A continuation of traditional hostilities between these two countries?

Here is the first of two videos of the press conference activists held on April 6 just outside San Onofre:
http://youtu.be/mtWzlCTGY_o

For the other video, go to: www.ResidentsOrganizedforaSafeEnvironment.org.