Nuclear Hotseat

Erwin, Tennessee is a small town with a big problem: Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc., known as NFS, a company that since the 1960’s has been a major supplier of fuel for the United States Navy’s fleet of nuclear-powered vessels. In recent years it has also reprocessed weapons-grade uranium into nuclear reactor fuel, which has impacted health and safety of people and the environment.

Now, the U.S. government has granted NFS $57.5 million USD to refine uranium into thermonuclear bomb-grade material – a bad idea from so many different directions that the local citizen’s action group that opposes the plant has been fighting back, hard. One of their most inspired moves was to put together a sterling group of experts for a one-day People’s Hearing for Nuclear Awareness.

We spoke with the panelists to get a full picture of the problems:

• Terry Lodge is an environmental and civil rights lawyer representing protesters opposing nuclear power and nuclear weapons, mountaintop removal, fracking and its radioactive waste, and war. He has been working with the Erwin Citizens Awareness Network.
• Michael Ketterer is currently Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Arizona University, and was formerly with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement.
• Mary Olson is an Evolutionary Biologist; Founder of Gender and Radiation Impact Project, and retired Radioactive Waste Specialist for Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
• Patrick O’Neill is a journalist co-founder of the Father Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House, and part of the Kings Bay Plowshares nonviolent direct action and other peace work, for which he was imprisoned for more than three years.
• Mari Inoue, Esq., is an attorney. Born and raised in Tokyo, she is a co-founding member of the Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World, which is raising awareness about concerns in communities impacted by nuclear policy.

The People’s Hearing for Nuclear Awareness was held and recorded on Monday, March 27, 2023.  This is an encore presentation from Nuclear Hotseat #614. 

For those of you who wish to participate in the Don’t Bank on the Bomb program to eliminate all funding for nuclear weapons-creating companies, go to their website: dontbankonthebomb.com

NATO stance towards Russia extends back long before the current war in Ukraine.  Nukewatch co-Director John LaForge gives the history and an update. 

Nuclear Bailout chart compiled by Environmental Working Group.

Kevin Kamps

• Veteran nuclear waste watchdog Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear gives us the straight story on how the nuclear industry has conned the federal government, state legislatures, politicians, and agencies into giving them HUGE nuclear bailouts - money, tax breaks, and other financial incentives - to keep worn out, embrittled nuclear reactors in operation. He breaks down the history, dangers, and totally irrational arguments the nukesters use to keep themselves in $4.1 million cars, private islands, and dressage horses.

• THE NUCLEAR REACTOR NEXT DOOR - Why A Company With Zero Nuclear Reactor Operating Experience is Receiving Over $8 Billion to Restart Palisades
• Reactors Are Closing
• Holtec’s “nuclear white elephant” secret plans revealed: NEWLY UNCOVERED DOCUMENT REVEALS HOLTEC’S SECRETIVE, TRUE PLANS FOR PALISADES AND OTHER SHUTDOWN NUCLEAR SITES - SMRs at all decommissioning sites, $3.3 billion+ bailout for unprecedented Palisades zombie reactor restart

Alistair Burnett, Head of Media for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) reports the latest on the Treaty from ICAN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.  He interviews Lina Hjärtström, ICAN Policy Researcher based in Sweden. 

Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) suggests we nuke Gaza! Don't believe me?  CLICK HERE to hear him saying it on video!  (Or just check the screen shot with transcript below.).

University of California at Santa Barbara is holding a two-day conference, Global Legacies of Anti-Nuclear Activism - April 12 and 13.  UCSB teamed up with the International Urnaium Film Festival to present Heidi Hutner's award-winning film, RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island.  There is no charge to attend, but you will need a reservation because there are a limited number of seats.

I will be attending as the Uranium Film Festival's US Ambassador to introduce the film. Afterwards, I'll be interviewing filmmaker Heidi Hutner for a wide-ranging Q&A and lively audience participation.

I will also be selling and signing my book:  YES, I GLOW IN THE DARK!  One Mile from Three Mile Island to Fukushima and Nuclear Hotseat. 

There are more free anti-nuclear events at UCSB  that weekend.  To take a look at the public program CLICK HERE.

There are 3 keynotes and a roundtable session that are also open to the public - no charge on those and no tickets required. 

Three Mile Island Alert's Eric Epstein (l) and Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy, pictured at TMI's 40th anniversary conference held in Harrisburg, PA, in late March, 2019.

• Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer for Fairewinds Energy Education (information provided via transcript).  Watch a video of Arnie Gundersen speaking about the accident at the 40th Anniversary of the founding of TMI Alert.
• Peter Bradford, who was a Commissioner at the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner  during the TMI accident.
• Eric Epstein, Chair of Three Mile Island Alert. 
  TMI Alert’s Radiation monitoring page.
• Mary Stamos, also known as Mary Osborn, a long time Middletown resident and TMIA member, who just passed away on February 22, 2024.
  NOTE:  Mary Stamos' collection of mutated plants collected around Three Mile Island is now part of the Smithsonian Institution's permanent collection, under the care of staff in the Department of Botany. Where appropriate, the specimens may be made available to Smithsonian scientists and other researchers who wish to examine them for their relevance to the Three Mile Island event of 1979. 
• Walter Cronkite, anchor for the CBS Evening News at the time of TMI and known as “the most trusted newsman in America.  To view his CBS network reports on TMI, CLICK HERE.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/7dVxOHVKGs4

Our thanks to filmmaker Robert (Robbie) Leppzer, producer of the two-hour audio documentary Voices from Three Mile Island, for permission to use excerpts from that work in this program.  These include:

• Portions of the news montage
• Middletown Mayor Bob Reid
• Dairy farmer Jane Lee
• Local resident Pat Street
• Dr. Michael Gluck, general practitioner, who works out of three Harrisburg hospitals and lives within two miles of the TMI reactors. 

Robbie Leppzer's complete VOICES FROM THREE MILE ISLAND audio documentary is available as a free download at:  https://www.powerstrugglemovie.com/voices-from-three-mile-island

Libbe HaLevy’s nuclear memoir, YES, I GLOW IN THE DARK!  One Mile from Three Mile Island to Fukushima and Nuclear Hotseat, contains full information on her experience having been one mile from the nuclear accident at TMI when it happened... and so much more!  You can purchase your copy of the book HERE. 

Sometimes a film festival is about more than just the films. The International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) kicked off its 2024 North American tour in Window Rock, Navajo Nation, with not only powerful films but an informational and emotional space where Navajo activists could find each other, network, and strengthen their battle for health, safety & compensation. 

Red Carpet Meeting of the Anti-Nuclear Minds!  (l-r) IUFF co-founder Marcîa Gomes de Oliviera, Anna Rondon, Kathleen Tsosie, Petuche Gilbert, Domacio Lopez, Mervyn Tilden, Libbe HaLevy

The films shown were:

• TRANSMUTATIONS: VISUALIZING MATTER - USA/Canada, 2021, Director Jesse Andrewartha,
• TALE OF A TOXIC NATION - USA, 2018, Director Louis Berry, Documentary, English, 13 min
• DEMON MINERAL - USA, 2022, Director: Hadley Austin - life in the radioactive desert of the Navajo Reservation in the American Southwest.
• SILENT FALLOUT - USA/Japan, 2023, Director and Producer Hideaki Ito
• VALLEY OF THE GODS - Poland/Italy/Luxemburg/USA, 2019, Director Lech Majewski
• JADUGODA - THE LAND OF MAGIC - India, 2023, Director Satish Munda
• RADIOACTIVE: THE WOMEN OF THREE MILE ISLAND - USA, 2022, Director Heidi Hutner
• SOLAR NANOFILTRATION - USA, 2023, Director: Deidra Peaches
• NUKED - Canada, 2023, Director, writer and roducer: Andrew Nisker
• DOWNWIND - USA, 2023, Directed by Mark Shapiro and Douglas Brian Miller.
• OF THE SENSE OF THE WHOLE: THE NETWORK OF PHYSICIST HANS-PETER DÜRR - Germany, 2020, Director Claus Biegert

Lifetime Achievement Award winners Anna Rondon (l) and Claus Biegert, holding their awards.

• Claus Biegert - He is a writer, filmmaker and journalist who attended the Festival from Germany. Claus helped create some of our most important anti-nuclear institutions. He initiated the World Uranium Hearing in in 1992 in Salzburg, Austria, which led in 1998 to the creation of the Nuclear-Free Future Award (NFFA).  Among his many films is OF THE SENSE OF THE WHOLE: THE NETWORK OF PHYSICIST HANS-PETER DÜRR, shown at this year's Window Rock festival.
• Anna Rondon - Anna Rondon (Diné) is Kinya’aa’aanii Clan, born for Nakai Dineh) is a lifelong advocate for the rights of Indigenous people and, in particular, members of the Navajo Nation who have suffered as a result of uranium minining and its deadly legacy. She is the Executive Director of the New Mexico Social Justice and Equity Institute, which works to end the health disparities resulting from decades of environmental degradation by the uranium mining industry, institutional racism directed at Indigenous communities, and multi-generational trauma. For the past 50 years, Anna has worked alongside many influential Indigenous leaders and her own spiritual advisors, which has deeply rooted her and educated her in how to navigate movement building at the various levels of organizing for change and justice.

The IUFF is traveling for two months through the US and into Canada to present films in 13 cities, each set of films curated to the issues, concerns, and needs of that community. The Festival provided not only films, but served as a lightning rod to attract activist groups and services, a community in-gathering for those working on and concerned about uranium mining and its attendant issues.  At Window Rock, in the beautiful Navajo Nation Museum auditorium, activists, concerned citizens, film lovers and the curious gather to learn more about all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, from the deadly impact of uranium mining through weapons, radioactive waste, downwinder issues, RECA, and more.  The Festival provided opportunities for networking and planning, as well as the support that came from the wonderful films. 

IUFF Director Norbert Suchanek doesn't take a break, not even at breakfast.

IUFF WR 2024 Bobby Leonard Mason

Blurry but historic: Norman Patrick Brown, 19 years old, addressing a 1979 anti-nuclear rally in DC.  Just look at the size of that crowd...

Norman Patrick Brown at IUFF Window Rock, 2024

Networking in the lobby of the Navajo Nation Museum: 
(l-r) journalist Mervyn Tilden, Damacio Lopez, Paul Griego.

Mary Beth Gallagher

• Want to know how to stop nukes?  Follow the money - and then take it away from the nuclear industry.  Mary Beth Gallagher is Director of Engagements for Domini Impact Investments, a mutual fund firm that’s women-led and, among other ethical choices, does not invest in any company that manufactures any part of nuclear weapons.  After hearing her speak at the United Nations Second Meeting of States Parties on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons last December, I knew the conscientious listeners of Nuclear Hotseat deserved to hear what she had to say. 
  
  I spoke with Mary Beth Gallagher on January 26, 2024.

• Domini Impact Investments: https://domini.com/invest/
• Investors Open Statement to States Parties on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW):  https://divest.icanw.org/investors_open_statement_to_states_parties_on_the_treaty_on_the_prohibition_of_nuclear_weapons_tpnw, (signed by 111 investors representing at least $1,007 billion assets under management as of 1 December 2023)
• As You Sow Weapons Free Funds:  https://weaponfreefunds.org/
• US Sustainable Investment Forum (USSIF) chart of Sustainable Investment Mutual funds and ETFs:  https://charts.ussif.org/mfpc/

A Hollywood letter calling for an end to nuclear weapons was the initiative of an organization that promotes nuclear power. No two thumbs up to that. 
And here's a LINK to Linda Pentz Gunter's article on this letter in Beyond Nuclear. 

Another American anti-nuclear activist is facing prison time in Germany for protesting nuclear weapons. 

Fukushima post office is "a symbolic step towards normalcy?"  Gimme a break!    

• Film - Tsukushima: Fukushima Speaks - Subtitled in English, available for one week. 
• Hot Poetry Contest - sponsored by Hanford Challenge for U.S. school students  
  ENTRY FORM
• Not Just Oppenheimer - How other scientists tried to change nuclear weaons policy for the better - and how some succeeded.
• Nuclear industry wants Canada to lift ban on reprocessing plutonium, despite proliferation risks

Nuclear Hotseat's annual Fukushima Anniversary SPECIAL: VOICES FROM JAPAN this year considers earthquake dangers to Japan's nuclear reactors.  In addition to an update on Fukushima, it focuses on the January 1, 2024 Noto Peninsula quake which shook the two Shika nuclear reactors, one of them beyond what it was built to be able to sustain.  Fortunately, both reactors were shut down, but that doesn't mean they were in no danger - just that it could have been much worse. 

Once again, we benefit from having the VOICES FROM JAPAN report compiled and written by Yuji Kaneko in Japanese. Beverly Findlay-Kaneko translated. She reports from Yokohama, Japan.  We spoke on March 1, 2024. 

Nuclear Hotseat's VOICES FROM JAPAN was researched and compiled from the following English and Japanese sources. 

NOTE: All Japanese language videos have been set to English captions; CLICK the CC button.

• Hokuriku Electric Company Shika Nuclear Power Plant outline. (Japanese) https://www.rikuden.co.jp/genshiryoku/shikagaiyou.htm
• Citizens Commission on Nuclear Energy (Japanese with a limited English website) https://www.ccnejapan.com/
• Citizens Nuclear Information Center (Japanese).  https://cnic.jp
• Citizens Nuclear Information Center (English). https://cnic.jp/english/
• Article on the safety of restarting the Onagawa Plant.  https://cnic.jp/english/?p=4751
• Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority (Japanese) https://www.nra.go.jp/activity/regulation/tekigousei/power_plants/index.html
• Our Planet TV symposium on the Noto Peninsula Earthquake and Nuclear Power Plants (Japanese, English closed captions added)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq7hr9_rUlY" class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejixdypBvL4&t=26s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq7hr9_rUlY
• Citizens Commission on Nuclear Energy Noto Peninsula Earthquake Symposium (Japanese; English closed captions added)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hZc-xQHkSU
• Democracy Times Noto Peninsula Earthquake Symposium (Japanese; English closed captions added) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aItEfr_4q1c
• TBS News Dig video on defeated plans for the Suzu Nuclear Power Plant and the damage around the Shika plant (Japanese, English closed captions added)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5fypbNxn3
• Ishikawa TV video on land upheaval (Japanese, English closed captions added)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5fypbNxn3k.
• Tokyo Shimbun Newspaper (Japanese). https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/300551
• Video of the present state of Fukushima Daiichi with former Nuclear Hotseat guest, reporter Takeshi Yamakawa (in Japanese, English closed-captions added). https://youtu.be/BmUsdc5MoWQ?si=Ch9NDJ5aKd6_EGDW

Screen shot from reporter Takeshi Yamakawa's video report on Fukushima Daiichi.

• Kyodo News Service.  https://nordot.app/1133017937588765172
• TEPCO.  https://www.tepco.co.jp/niigata_hq/kk-np/index-j.html
• Tohoku Electric Power Company. https://www.tohoku-epco.co.jp/electr/genshi/safety/onagawa/
• The Japan Times. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/02/08/japan/science-health/fukushima-water-leak/
• The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.  https://thebulletin.org/2022/08/the-diablo-canyon-nuclear-plant-assessing-the-seismic-risks-of-extended-operation/

When we remember the Fukushima nuclear disaster, an accident that could happen anywhere, the only lesson should be to cease all further use of dangerous nuclear power technology.

Explosion at Fukushima. Daiichi nuclear power facility Reactor 1 on March 12, 2011.

Ugly numnutz - because "cheaper" and "faster" are two words you NEVER want to associate with nuclear construction, operation, or decommissioning.  I wish someone would inform Congress...

• Baby Tooth Study - TV report on current studies on 100,000 baby teeth collected starting in \ 1959 to check radioactive Strontium 90 levels from atmospheric nuclear tests in the teeth of children.  The initial study led President Kennedy and Russia's Premier Khrushchev to sign the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. 
• Dr. Yuki Miyamoto of DePaul University on Oppenheimer Film: a Victim or a Victimizer?
• Japan must cease Fukushima dumping and establish independent oversight body, says Japanese nuclear power expert
 Tatsujiro Suzuki, the vice director of the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition at Nagasaki University
• RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island will be streaming as of March 12 on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video.  There is also a Webinar, March 28 at 8pm EST: “RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island, Gender, Environmental Justice, and the Future of Nuclear Power.”