Nuclear Hotseat

(l-r)  State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, MA; US Congressional Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts; Bill Kidd, member of Scottish Parliament; Frank Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines, Iowa.   After a press conference on the steps of the United Nations building.

Keystone Picture: One of the 30 posters selected to line the walls of the United Nations.  Hey, on social media, kittens rank high.  Maybe that's the way to get attention...?

Politics and politicians figure prominently in the struggle to get governments to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).  Here are a few of those who showed up at the United Nations, November 27 - December 1, for the 2nd Meeting of Sttes Parties on the TPNW.

• Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the first and, to date, only member of the US congress to attend meetings on the TPNW.Rep. McGovern referenced other Congressional supporters of the TPNW.  Here is a brief video featuring some of them calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons:

https://youtu.be/L_u4GgLvJLU?si=qUElxx1VMA4cRnPH

• Mayor Frank Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines, Iowa and member of Mayors for Peace.
• State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, MA
• Bill Kidd, member of Scottish Parliament
• Heather McPherson, member of Canadian Parliament

Canadian MP Heather McPherson (l) with Nuclear Hotseat host Libbe HaLevy

• HIROSHIMA Mayor Kazumi Matsui, who spoke with us through an interpreter:

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui (r) and his interpreter in front of display of information about the Hiroshima atomic bombing and the experiences of the Hibakusha (Atomic bomb blast survivors).

• The treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons has other supporters representing international as well as local interests. Jay Coughlin, the executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico - and no stranger to Nuclear Hotseat listeners - fills us in on another powerful supporter - John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico - one of the most nuclear-intensive sites in the world.  Here is a LINK to Archbishop Wester's full statement:  https://archdiosf.org/documents/2023/11/231122_TPNW_Statement_ASF.pdf
• Filling us in on the range of problems we are facing from nukes - not just weapons but nuclear power, uranium mining and the entire nuclear fuel chain, was Jackie Cabasso of the Western States Legal Foundation.

Jackie Cabasso

• Setsuko Thurlow, a Hibakusha and leader with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)  was scheduled to speak but illness prevented her from appearing.  Here is the speech she would have delivered, "We Shall Not Be Moved.":  LINK

Triple nuclear global capacity by 2050? Build 115 reactors a year until then?  Fusion is the solution? Nuclear madness at the COP28 climate summit reaches new heights, or would that be depths?

How to boost acceptance of nuclear energy?  Make the reactors prettier!!!!!  (Oh, yeah, that'll really help... )

• Pablo Sadgardurl, Mexico City.  He has created an interactive map of international nuclear test locations  akin to Alex Wellerstein's Nukemap.   Check out the world of nuclear tests and hibakusha communities here: nucleartestimpacts.org

• Kendra Wahogreneales from Sweden.
• Janet Fenton, Scotland
• Lynn Jamieson, Scotland
• Petuche Gilbert, Navajo Nation
• Aigerim Seitenova - Kazakhstan

• Joey Tau, Pacific Islands
• Eperi Lesuma, Fiji
  
• Melissa Parke, Executive Director, ICAN.  ICAN Executive Director Melissa Parke's  ICAN high level statement delivered to the opening of the Second Meeting of States Parties of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear War

• U.S. Congressman, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the first and only  (thus far) U.S. Member of Congress to attend United Nations meetings on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

• Claus Biegert, founder of the Nuclear Free Future Awards, holding a specially designed Delft plate to honor the late Daniel Ellsberg.

• 2023 Nuclear Free Future Award winners Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross of French Polynesia (r) and Tina Cordova of the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico, in a heartfelt hug of congratulations and empathy for their shared status as NFFA winners, Downwinders, and cancer survivors. 

• Susi Snyder, Programme coordinator, ICAN.

Hi All.  I'm still in NYC for the United Nations 2nd Meeting of States Parties on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).  The trip and what I've been able to learn and cover has been extraordinary, but tech has been a disaster. 

• When I landed in NYC, my computer's space bar stopped working.  After an emergency session with an Apple genius, no fix was possible in the short term so I purchased an external keyboard.  It's an awkward, frustrating solution, but at least I have some use of the computer.
• On Monday night, November 27, I discovered that the Nuclear Hotseat website (this url) had been hacked, showing an almost blank page stating there was a database problem.  I have no idea how long it was down.  My computer guy was able to get the site up and working again last night, but it was down again this morning.  Another fix and we were again running, but no guarantee it will stick.  I'll know more tomorrow (He's in Thailand so time zones are an issue). Considering the number of business cards for the show - and the database sign-up I've been promoting - I've given out to delegates, campaigners, and media here at the TPNW meetings, this is really a bummer.
• Given these challenges, I've been unable to get the work done on this week's planned show from the UN.,  so Nuclear Hotseat #649 will post next week.  In the meantime, here's a classic episode from Alison Katz of Independent WHO on how the World Health Organization "cooked the books" on Chernobyl radiation and health impact data:

• Chernoby Tuth, World Health Organization Lies Revealed – Alison Katz is a psychologist and sociologist who headed Independent WHO. The international watchdog group 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.  The final vigil was held at the Ministry of Health on 5th May 5, 2017.   Originally recorded for Nuclear Hotseat #118, September 17, 2013, the material covered remains relevant and important.

Nuclear Hotseat producer/Host Libbe HaLevy will be in New York next week for the United Nations' 2nd Meeting of States Parties on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  To remind you of  what it took to get this far - 93 nations are now signatories and 69 states parties - we revisit four interviews on the journey to get this far... and what lies ahead.

NUKE BAN WEEK 2023 - Full Schedule

In preparation for my trip next week to cover the Second Meeting of States Parties for the Treaty on the Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, we take a look back a relevant interviews from the past eight years of work to ban nuclear weapons. 

• From 2017 - Historic audio! Heidi Hutner, on-site at the United Nations, recorded within one hour of passage of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  Since that time, Heidi has released the film she produced and directed, RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island, as well as continued as director of the Sustainability Studies Program at Stonybrook University. 
• From 2020: Covid19/Nuclear Connection – Alicia Sanders-Zakre is the Policy and Research Coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). She directs and coordinates research on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, and general nuclear weapons policy.  Sanders-Zakre did the research that led to creation of the infographic below, which has electrified even mainstream media outlets.  She joined us from her home in Geneva, Switzerland.

ICAN's 2020 info graphic on what one year of the U.S. nuclear weapons budget would buy in terms of Covid supplies.  To view a comparable graphics for the UK and France, go to ICAN page:
Nuclear Spending vs. Healthcare.

• From 2020:  Alice Slater serves on the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War and is the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.  Here, she is testifying before the New York City Council to convince them to sign onto the ICAN Cities Appeal.  She only had two minutes, but provides a brilliant model of what can be accomplished in that brief span of time - and it's a lesson in effective, persuasive public speaking.   (PS - New York signed.)
• From 2015:  Suzi Snyder is now the program coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, where her responsibilities include facilitating the development and execution of ICAN's key programs, including the management of ICAN's divestment work and engagement with the financial sector. At the time this was recorded in 2015, Susi worked with PAX, a peace group based in The Netherlands, and with Don’t Bank on the Bomb, a brilliant program for forcing banks and pension funds to remove their investments from nuclear bomb manufacturing companies.

• Sign up for ICAN general emails
• Sign up for ICAN research/policy emails
• LINK to page w/infographics for covid equivalency
• Story behind the info-graphics on the cost of nuclear weapons vs. healthcare costs.
• Global doctors oped on Covid 19 and nuclear war
• Newsweek article on ICAN calculations on nuclear spending vs COVID supplies
• ICAN CITIES APPEAL
• DON'T BANK ON THE BOMB

Epidemiologist Joseph  Mangano interviewed by Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy

Cancer rates in the counties surrounding the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, are the highest in that state and among the highest in the country.   Now Ohio is planning on expanding nuclear facilities on that site without even pretending to listen to informed citizens' concerns about the radiation's impact on their health.  How bad is it?  Today's guests paint a full - and frightening - picture.

• Joseph Mangano is Director of Radiation and Public Health Project and an epidemiologist - one who practices a branch of medical science that investigates all the factors that determine the presence or absence of diseases and disorders. The group’s Mission Statement: to conduct research on health hazards of nuclear power, and educate citizens and officials on the results. Mangano crunches public health data and teases out a true picture of the public health impact of nuclear reactors that neither the government nor the nuclear industry is willing or able to provide.
• Vina Colley is, in her own words, “a Whistleblower and a sick worker from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant in Piketon, Ohio.”  She is a Co-Founder of National Nuclear Workers for Justice (NNWJ) and Portsmouth/Piketon Resident for Environmental Safety and Security  (PRESS).  For more than 30 years, she has pushed the government to take responsibility for the radiological contamination that came from the Uranium Enrichment site, and execute The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA), which was enacted in October 2000 to compensate workers for their health issues caused by working within DOE’s nuclear facilities.

Vina Colley

• Pat Marida is Director of the Ohio Nuclear Free Network .  She has more than 30 years experience fighting nuclear dangers in Ohio.

Pat Marida

For a final piece of this radioactive situation, Nuclear Hotseat interviewed Dr. Michael Ketterer on his work testing radiation levels in the Piketon/Portsmouth area for Nuclear Hotseat #642 (October 10,  2023). Dr. Ketterer has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry and has worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement, and taught at the University of Denver. Since 2000, Michael has been conducting studies of plutonium in the environment, publishing and lecturing extensively, and has analyzed samples from locations worldwide. He is currently studying plutonium dioxide particles in soils near the former Rocky Flats facility in Colorado, and fingerprinting off-site contaminants near the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in southern Ohio. Michael is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Arizona University.

• SATIRE ALERT:  The Onion - Ohio Voters Narrowly Defeat Measure That Would Nuke Ohio   (...as in, with nuclear bombs...)
• More to come!