Nuclear Hotseat

The late, Great, Patti Ameno

Patti Ameno (also Patty, Patricia) grew up in Apollo, Pennsylvania, 35 miles NE of Pittsburgh, not realizing that her childhood home was directly across the street from the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation.  NUMEC manufactured fuel for commercial nuclear power plants and the Navy’s nuclear submarines, leaving behind a legacy of uranium and plutonium waste that impacted the health of everyone in the area — including Patti. 

A trained investigator with Naval Investigative Service (NIS) and former U.S. Federal Criminal Investigator, Patty took on NUMEC, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Babcock & Wilcox and Atlantic Richfield… and won.  But the battle she was ultimately unable to win was her fight against illnesses and cancers that wracked her body as a result of that early exposure to radioactive materials. Patti Ameno passed away on Friday, May 10, 2024. She was 72 years old.

This interview was recorded for Nuclear Hotseat #239 for January 20, 2016. 

Patti Ameno Obituary

https://youtu.be/pvY7NAm0QV4?si=UZgQOU_pfez-YqB3

Instead of getting us off nuclear power dependence, a new Russian uranium import ban will further condemn Native American communities to new uranium mines. Here’s Linda Pentz Gunter, back from her sabbatical, with this week’s Nuclear Hotseat Hot Story.

• Speaker of the House MIKE JOHNSON'S office:  202-225-2777. CALL AND TELL HIM TO BRING RECA TO THE FLOOR FOR A VOTE! 
• NuScale Has Deceived Investors about the Certification of its Reactor


• UN watchdog warns on nuclear trafficking
• As war in the Middle East threatens to spread, nuclear disarmament is imperative

https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/1-nuclear-explosion-in-space-emp-fries-grid

Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman - The New Nuclear Push featuring Kevin Kamps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psPv71EODOE

Some weeks, it's time to catch up with a number of stories.  So here we present a series of short interviews covering a range of issues that are up for us right now.

• Informational meetings between representatives of nuclear radiation-impacted communities around the country with members of the House of Representatives about expanding and extending the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or RECA. This program, which provides nominal payments for health care help to those whose lives and health have been negatively impacted by government-created radiation exposure, is set to expire on June 7, just only three weeks from now. The meetings with Congress were going on right as I was recording this episode.
  
  I spoke with Dawn Chapman, co-founder of Just Moms StL, the group raising awareness of WWII Manhattan Project radioactive atomic weapons waste which was dumped into Coldwater Creek and which has contaminated water, land, homes, and children.
  
  We spoke on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.
  
  
• Ian Zabarte is Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation, and organizer of the Las Vegas presentation of the International Uranium Film Festival
  
  
• Shelley Berkeley has served seven terms in Congress and is now running for Mayor of Las Vegas. She was the only Nevada-based politician who chose to attend the festival and who has closely aligned herself with issues regarding the proposed nuclear waste dump site at Yucca Mountain.
  
  
• The International Uranium Film Festival spent two months touring North America, going from Window Rock in Navajo Nation down into Texas, then up the east coast, over to Chicago, the west coast, even Vancouver, British Columbia, before ending its marathon 13-venue, 10,000 mile journey in Las Vegas. IUFF co-Founder and Director, Norbert Suchanek, gives us perspective not only on what this grueling trip was like, but the next set of plans for the IUFF... including Hollywood in November...? 

International Uranium Film Festival co-Founder and Director Norbert Suchanek,
seen here hard at work from his North American Tour office. 

It is with great sadness that we let you know that Patti Ameno, long-time activist and a supporter of Nuclear Hotseat since our earliest days, has passed away.  Patti grew up in Apollo, Pennsylvania, 35 miles NE of Pittsburgh, not realizing that her childhood home was directly across the street from the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation.  NUMEC manufactured fuel for commercial nuclear power plants and the Navy’s nuclear submarines, leaving behind a legacy of uranium and plutonium waste that impacted the health of everyone in the area — including Patti.  A trained investigator with Naval Investigative Service (NIS) and former U.S. Federal Criminal Investigator, Patty took on NUMEC, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Babcock & Wilcox and Atlantic Richfield… and won. 

Patti Ameno passed on Friday, May 10, 2024. She was 71 years old and died of one of the cancers that plagued her health for so many years.  The full interview with Patti Ameno from Nuclear Hotseat #239 will be aired in the coming weeks. 

• Godzilla vs. Music Box Film Series in Chicago, June 7-13, 2024 - co-production of the Music Box Theatre and Japanese Arts Foundation. Depaul University professor Dr. Yuki Miyamoto will be one of the speakers. Tickets available at: MusicBoxTheatre.com.
  
  Meanwhile, enjoy their unique, brief video - the BEST PROMO VIDEO EVER!

https://youtu.be/yk_NCGMC43c?si=dtLgjMQXxizxAjnx

• The original 1954 Japanese film, GODZILLA ("Gojira"), was a metaphor for the nuclear bomb. It was made at a time when direct mention of the impact of the atomic bombs on the people of Japan was still illegal. LINK to full original movie, with Japanese subtitles.   (NOTE:  If you see a version of the "original" GODZILLA film that has Raymond Burr in it, that's a doctored/edited/censored version of the film.  See the full original in Japanese (with subtitles) to understand the atomic bomb parallels.)

After a delay of more than one year, the Oppenheimer film has opened in Japan. To learn what the response has been, we spoke with Prof. Robert "Bo" Jacobs of the Hiroshima Peace Institute and the Graduate School of Peace Studies of Hiroshima City University. He is author of the book NUCLEAR BODIES: The Global Hibakusha. Bo gives us an insightful examination of the many issues at play in Japan's muted response to the film, as well as what has kept the country from developing a more robust opposition to nuclear weapons.

Prof. Robert "Bo" Jacobs, Hiroshima Peace Institute and
the Graduate School of Peace Studies of Hiroshima City University

• NUCLEAR BODIES: The Global Hibakusha
• Robert "Bo" Jacobs website
• Nuclear Hotseat #632 - Hiroshima/Nagasaki Radiation Aftermath – We Are All Hibakusha (A-Bomb Survivors)

Our monthly exclusive report on international activism and progress to enact and enforce the United Nations Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons.  ICAN head of media Alistair Burnett reports from ICAN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with Susi Snyder, ICAN programme coordinator, joining from the Netherlands. 

• The ICAN map of nuclear testing

We continue our commemoration of the 38th year since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with a reprise of one of Nuclear Hotseat's most CLASSIC episodes. 

• Chernoby Truth, World Health Organization Lies Revealed – Alison Katz is a psychologist and sociologist who heads Independent WHO. The international watchdog group - based in Geneva, Switzerland - draws attention to the World Health Organization’s failure in its duty to protect those populations who are victims of radioactive contamination from Chernobyl and, later, Fukushima.  The group held a vigil in front of WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, five days a week, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., beginning on April 26, 2007 – the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.   Originally recorded for Nuclear Hotseat #118, September 17, 2013, the material covered is still relevant and important.

• Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future by Kate Brown. Superb accounting of the health devastation of Chernobyl, constructed from over three years of investigation into medical archives in eastern Europe. 
• Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higgenbotham.  NOTE: the author does a superb job reconstructing the horrors of Chernobyl, but then goes full-on pro-nuke during the final chapter, citing statistics from only the pro-nuclear WHO, IAEA, and UNSCEAR. I recommend that you skip that chapter and read the rest of the book for its narrative of nuclear lies, miscalculations, cover-ups, and destruction of people and the environment. In particular, the description of the physical devastation of high level radiation exposure is comparable to the visuals provided in the HBO series.)

No official Numnutz of the Week this week, but if there were one, this would be it:  Vodka brewed by The Chernobyl Spirit Company, "a Social Enterprise producing high quality (and safe!) spirits made from crops harvested near Chernobyl."   I don't care if - as they proudly state - at least 75% of profits go to helping rebuild communities in Ukraine impacted first by Chernobyl and now by the war, I don't believe their claims of safety "where land can't officially be used for agriculture."

The Elephant's Foot - solidified melted fuel core at Chernobyl in Ukraine.  Still highly radioactive, still dangerous. 

The “elephant’s foot” – still highly radioactive molten core of Chernobyl - with Arthur Korneev (also spelled Korneyev), former head of the Shelter Object Dosimetry Service, who took these photos.  He died in 2022 at the age of 73. 

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster began on April 26, 1986 – another of those dates that will live in infamy. Here is a SPECIAL Nuclear Hotseat classic episode to paint the picture of what happened and what it did to the people who lived through it, and what we still face. Originally produced for Nuclear Hotseat #357, April 20, 2018:

• Bonnie Kouneva was a 15-year-old living in Communist Bulgaria when the Chernobyl disaster began, but no one knew about it because the Soviet Union said nothing to its people.  On May 1, May Day, only five days after it began, Bulgarian citizens were “encouraged” by the Soviet hierarchy to attend all-day celebrations of the communist state – outdoors, in the rain – at the exact time the worst of Chernobyl’s radiation was directly overhead. Here, she paints the picture of the impact of that radiation rainout and lets us know the result of this devastating experience.
  
• Dr. Timothy Mousseau is an evolutionary biologist and faculty member of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina. Since 1999, Professor Mousseau and his collaborators have explored the ecological, genetic and evolutionary consequences of low-dose radiation in populations of plants, animals and people inhabiting the Chernobyl region of Ukraine and Belarus.
  
• The late Dr. Janette Sherman edited the the English translation of the groundbreaking work, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment by Alexei Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko. Dr. Sherman was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Nuclear Hotseat, and we spoke about this book and how it came about for NH #97 on April 23, 2013. She passed away on November 20, 2019.
  
• Dr. Alexei Yablokov was environmental advisor to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Gorbachev administration, as well as a co-founder of Greenpeace, Russia.  His book, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, compiled and translated into English more than 5,000 separate scientific reports on Chernobyl that completely contradict the World Health Organization’s report, which undermined the seriousness of the accident.  Dr. Yablakov died in January, 2017.
  
• Ryuichi Hirokawa was the first non-Soviet photojournalist to document the Chernobyl disaster. The website on his humanitarian aid work with the children of Fukushima, based upon his experiences at Chernobyl, is at: kuminosato.net.

• CLICK HERE for a free PDF of the classic book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment by Alexei Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko, edited by Janette D. Sherman.

WHY WE DO IT:  Linda Seeley of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace shows off a picture of her 3-week old great grandson - the next generation of reason for working against nukes.

KEYSTONE PHOTO:  Dream Team of Activists at the UCSB Global Legacies conference: (l-r) Jane Swanson, Libbe HaLevy, Linda Seeley, Melissa Bumstead, Heidi Hutner, Jim Heddle, Dr. Amanda M. Nichols, Denise Duffield, Mary Beth Brangan.

Last weekend, UC Santa Barbara hosted a three day Global Legacies of Anti-Nuclear Activism conference in partnership with NYU Abu Dhabi.  Presenters from around the world came together to speak on the interconnectedness of issues that overlap with the detrimental effects of nuclear, including race, gender, religion, indigenous rights, and health.

The full three-day UCSB program featured inquiries into the intersection of religion, gender, sexuality, and nuclear. I attended as Ambassador to the U.S. for the International Uranium Film Festival, which had me introducing Heidi Hutner’s award-winning film, RADIOACTIVE: THE WOMEN OF THREE MILE ISLAND, and conducting the after-screening Q&A with Heidi.

Filmmaker Heidi Hutner (l) and Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy, post screening and Q&A

I was only able to attend for one day, but I sat in on the roundtable discussion: Environmental Injustice and Nuclear Technologies in California. The presentation was recorded and will be uploaded to the conference website:  https://www.antinuclearactivism.org/roundtable-panelists.  The interviews on this program were recorded separately, on April 12 and 13, 2024.

• DENISE DUFFIELD - Associate Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles, a board member of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, and is on the Management Team of Back from the Brink. Here, she talks about crucial strategies for building our movement as we help build others.  For more information:  PreventNuclearWar.org.
• MELISSA BUMSTEAD - founder and co-director of Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL), which is one of California’s most toxic places and the site of one of America’s worst nuclear meltdowns. Having dealt with cancer in multiple family members, including her daughter when she was only four years old, Melissa is very attuned to information about cancer and its connection to exposure to radioactivity.  Here’s a recent discovery about California cancer rates and proximity to known radioactive sites.  Access full report HERE.

CA areas with the top four rates of invasive breast cancer - all sites of known radiological contamination.

• Cathy Iwane lived in Wakayama, Japan for more than 25 years until the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. She and her daughters moved to Southern California, where they found themselves inadvertently living in close proximity to the leaking, dangerous San Onofre nuclear generating station. She fought for San Onofre’s closure, now fights for its clean-up and safe storage of radioactive waste, and has continued working on a range of nuclear issues. Here, she reiterates some important points about AI and nukes that were part of her talk.
• Amanda M. Nichols, Organizer of the Conference, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Environmental Studies Program at University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Nichols’ primary research falls at the intersections of environmental history and religious and gender studies, and focuses on the roles and contributions of women in the North American anti-nuclear movement. We talk about what it takes to put together a conference like this, and how others can learn how to do it for their schools or communities.  Contact her via email at: [email protected] or [email protected].

Conference organizer Amanda M. Nichols, PhD, moderating a panel

• Jane Swanson of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace was not a speaker, but came to provide support and continue to educate herself in community with others who care.
• Linda Seeley is also from San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace.  She has served as Vice-President and spokesperson for the group since 2009 and has also been a member of the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel since its inception in 2018. Here, she share not only about what she does, but why she does it.

Any time the government wants to cover up the fact of a radiologically contaminated site, it magically turns it into a "wildlife refuge" or "available land! cheap!" So why not lure solar companies onto the Nevada NUCLEAR Test Site to install "sun farms?" No telling what will happen to the radiological levels when that dust gets kicked up during construction and operation... or what the indigenous treaty rights are regarding that land.