Nuclear Hotseat

Anti-nuclear activists are often isolated from each other because we focus on what’s most important to us - a local issue with radioactive waste dump, or uranium mining, or weapons, or a spike in health crises, or any one of dozens of other nuclear issues. Or we’re working on the same issues as other groups, but not necessarily in communication with each other to coordinate what we’re doing and saying to make a bigger media splash with our limited resources.

Today’s guests are among those making a difference in terms of all of us working together and strategizing so we’re all on the same page and creating our own echo chamber.

• Bonnie Fisk is Director of Development for the Ploughshares Fund, a public grant-making foundation that supports initiatives to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons, and to prevent conflicts that could lead to their use.
• Mac Hamilton is Program Director, Peace and Security, for ReThink Media, which builds capacity across movements, works to minimize competition, maximizes resources, and raises the voices of underrepresented spokespeople.

Together, they produced the six sold-out previews of the Oppenheimer film around the country which featured panel discussions on the issues raised - and huge leg up that led to news stories and features on what the movie did not cover. Together, the work done by these two groups has positioned us to make a huge difference in our future.

I spoke with Bonnie Fisk and Mac Hamilton on Friday, August 18, 2023.

• Sign up for ReThink Media's AM Nukes Roundup, sent weekdays at 8:15 AM ET. 
• Other organizations to receive action alerts from:
  
  • Take action with the Union of Concerned Scientists
  • Take action with Global Zero
  • Sign up for action alerts with Physicians for Social Responsibility
  • Join Win Without War and take action for nuclear frontline communities
  • Follow the work of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium
• Ploughshares.org - where you will find more information about what they fund)
• Ploughshares.org/pressthebutton  - the Ploughshares Fund’s podcast)
• The ballet that includes nuclear storytelling:  Yvonne Montoya’s production, “Stories from Home”

Washington Post runs an article citing the rise in cancer rates among women and younger people and providing a whole list of possible causes... WITHOUT ONCE MENTIONING RADIATION, which is known to have a greater health impact on women and young people than the standard for measurement - the adult Reference Man.  Cancer among younger Americans is on the rise, new study shows

Linda is on sabbatical for three months.  Her Hot Story feature will return in November.

• Friends of the Earth:  [Q&A] ALPS-treated (but still contaminated) water at the Fukushima nuclear plant: 14 points to know.
• DON'T BANK ON THE BOMB
• Huge study of nuclear workers in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States confirms low dose radiation as a cause of cancer.

Rallies against the dumping of radioactive water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean - around the world as of 23rd August:

• Google Form to register your actions such as rallies, online hashtag, film screening, press releases etc.:
• The USA
  Los Angeles, Aug 23rd, 12 - 1 PM @ Japanese Consulate
  New York, Aug 23rd, 12 - 1 PM @ Japanese Consulate  (E 49th St & Park Ave.)
  Washington DC, Aug 25th, 11am @ Japanese Embassy
  Seattle, Washington, Aug 26th, 2pm @ Seattle Downtown  'West Lake Park'
  Organized by Global Candlelight Action
• UK
  North Wales, Aug 25th, 5pm @ Bangor pier
  Organized by PAWB ( People Against Wylfa B) and CADNO
• Germany
  Berlin, Aug25th, 5 pm @ Brandenburg Gate
  Frankfurt, Aug 26th, 3 pm @ Rathenauplatz (Goetheplatz)
  Hamburg, September 9th
  Organized by Global Candlelight Action
• Fiji
  Suva, Aug 25th, 10am @ Japanese Embassy
  Organized by PANG, Alliance for Future Generations, Pacific Conference of Churches; FWRM, DIVA for Equality and others joining the March including the largest Indigenous women's network. 
• Japan
  Tokyo, Aug 22nd @ Japanese PM house
  Tokyo, Aug 23rd @ TEPCO
  Fukushima Iwaki, Aug 27th 
  Organized by Japanese CSOs alliances
• Switzerland
  Zurich, September 16th
  Organized by Global Candlelight Action
• Canada
  Civil Zoom rally, on August 24, 5 pm
  Organized by  civil society in Canada
• Australia
  Melbourne, Aug 26th (Sat), 5 pm @ Korea Society of Victoria
  Organized by Global Candlelight Action
• Korea
  Seoul, Aug 23rd, 7pm @ Japanese Embassy
  Seoul, Aug 24th, 7pm @ Japanese Embassy
  Seoul, Aug 26th, 6pm @ Korea Press Center
  17 local cities nationwide in Korea hold a press conference and rallies from Aug 22nd~31st. Organized by Korean civil society alliances / Korean Peoples' Action to Stop Dumping of Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Water(KPA-SDFDRW)

J. Robert Oppenheimer (in hat) and Gen. Leslie Groves at ground zero of the Trinity a-bomb test in New Mexico, six weeks after Trinity test and one month after Hiroshima.

Author/Filmmaker Greg Mitchell

• In the weeks following the premiere of the Oppenheimer film, there has been a deluge of articles not only  reviewing the film but going into the issues the movie avoided.  We revisit Greg Mitchell, author, filmmaker, and expert on atomic weapons from the Manhattan Project era to evaluate this surge of atomic awareness, nuclear issues, and where it might lead activists.  We spoke on on Friday, August 11, 2023.
• LINK to Greg Mitchell interviewed about Oppenheimer on Nuclear Hotseat #631.

Gender and Radiation Impact Project's Mary Olson

• Biologist Mary Olson is Founder of Gender and Radiation Impact Project, a 501(c)3 educational and funding nonprofit.  An internationally acknowledged expert in radiation health damage, especially to women and little girls, she has addressed:  the 2014 Vienna Conference on Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons; in 2015; the United Nations during review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and in Russia, on the medical consequences of nuclear weapons at an event sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
  
  This September, she joins Cindy Folkers of Beyond Nuclear to present Radiation Information for Everyone (RIFE). an online series of classes for people for whom understanding radiation is personally important.  Together they bring 60 years of combined experience in analysis, research, policy, politics and support for and collaboration with radiation impacted communities. 
  
  I spoke with Mary Olson on Friday, August 11, 2023.

LINK to sign up for Radiation Information for Everyone (RIFE)

Nuclear-free cities help drive support for a nuclear-free world.  But one of the most famous, Takoma Park, just took a step backward.

Hot, hot produce right off the tree from Fukushima sent to the Dominican Republic!  Isn't that just Peachy???

• Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy storytelling about her recent trip to Brazil to attend the International Uranium Film Festival.  Header includes the first announcement of her being named U.S. Ambassador for the IUFF. 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ah2rJY8b6lE

• PETITION to the FDA:  Keep Harmful Radioactive Waste Out of Our Children's Food!  from Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN), Citizens for Health, Ecological Options Network (EON), and Beyond Nuclear
• CALL FOR PAPERS - YOUTH FOR TPNW
  Papers on youth-led research into nuclear weapons + intersecting issues, to have this inform our policy & advocacy and share it with our networks.  Youth for TPNW invites interested authors to submit papers for publication in our inaugural research papers series. 
  Eligibility requirements:
       Author must be under the age of 30 years old.
       Paper must be relevant to the subject of nuclear disarmament/abolition (with preference to those referencing the TPNW).
       Paper must be within the range of 2,000 to 4,000 words long.
       Paper must be fully referenced and cited. 
       Paper must be written in English.
  To submit a paper for publication, please fill out this google form.
  The deadline for submission for this first call for papers is the 1st September 2023.   Good luck!
• Oppenheimer Advocacy Resources compiled by Back from the Brink
• The misguided push to weaken nuclear safety standards is gaining steam by Edwin Lyman, Director, Nuclear Power Safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. 
• BBC 1980 mini-series OPPENHEIMER starring Sam Waterston:

https://youtu.be/SxmsxMjFwFQ

• PBS American Experience: The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx9DEE-N_Z0

• After the Fallout - short documentary about Downwinders from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw_6TP8hEl4

Map of radiation contamination in the United States from Trinity test, 100 atmospheric blasts, and 921 underground from 1945 to 1992.  Check article: Trinity Nuclear Test’s Fallout Reached 46 States, Canada and Mexico, Study Finds

• Part 2 of our interview with Prof. Robert "Bo" Jacobs.  He is an American historian of nuclear technologies and radiation techno-politics.  Bo moved to Japan in 2006 after being hired by the Hiroshima Peace Institute and is currently a professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute and the Graduate School of Peace Studies of Hiroshima City University.  He’s the author of the 2022 book, NUCLEAR BODIES: The Global Hibakusha.
• LINK to Part 1 of this interview with Bo Jacobs on Nuclear Hotseat #632

• LINK to Prof. Robert "Bo" Jacobs' book, NUCLEAR BODIES: The Global Hibakusha
• Bo Jacob's website

Nukes on the moon sound like lunacy.  But is there a quiet military agenda as well?

• When does "education" become "nuclear grooming?"  An old reactor in India gets repurposed into a super duper atomic museum aimed at kids!

• Top Medical Journals Publish Unprecedented Joint Call for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
• Counting the dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN FROM CONCERNED PEACE AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES in observance of the 78th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Japan
• Back from the Brink - Oppenheimer Advocacy Resources Page
• Gender and Radiation Impact Project - to sign up for Newsletter, scroll down to bottom of landing page
• America is heavily reliant on Russia for nuclear fuel. Congress might change that.
• AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN FROM CONCERNED PEACE AND CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES - downloadable PDF

Mary Dickson article link:  https://eedition.sltrib.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=5f06855a-6793-4114-aaf0-0f5fdba1db7b

New study reveals that radioactive fallout from the Trinity atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945, deposited in 46 states, Canada and Mexico.  (Map from New York Times; CLICK here for the article. 

• HIBAKUSHA is the term for those who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  But in recent years, it has come to be applied more widely to all who have been exposed to radiation from nuclear bomb testing and other sources of contamination from manufacturing, uranium mining, nuclear reactors, and radioactive waste. As today’s guest will explain, that means just about all of us.
  
  Prof. Robert "Bo" Jacobs is an American historian of nuclear technologies and radiation techno-politics. He moved to Japan in 2006 after being hired by the Hiroshima Peace Institute. and is currently a professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute and the Graduate School of Peace Studies of Hiroshima City University. He’s the author of the 2022 book, NUCLEAR BODIES: The Global Hibakusha, and that’s what we’ll be talking about.

Prof. Robert "Bo" Jacobs of the Hiroshima Peace Institute with his book, NUCLEAR BODIES: The Global Hibakusha. 

Bo offers such a wealth of information that our interview ran over one hour.  So it’s being presented in two parts as a bracket around the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.   Part 2 will appear on next week's Nuclear Hotseat #633, August 8, 2023.  

(To clear up a few references from the interview, note that in Part 1, Rongalap in the Marshall Islands was a site of U.S. A-bomb tests in the 1950’s.  And the Japanese fishermen on the boat Lucky Dragon were accidentally contaminated by nuclear fallout from the United States Castle Bravo thermonuclear weapon test at Bikini Atoll in 1954.)

I spoke with Bo Jacobs on Friday, July 21, 2023.

LINKS:  Robert "Bo" Jacobs and NUCLEAR BODIES: The Global Hibakusha. 

Did the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki end the war, or was it a fundamentally  immoral act of racism?

• Decisions, decisions...  What's more numnutz?  A nuke-powered space rocket  to get us (or Elon Musk) to Mars in half the time while risking an explosion that will set off an Electro-Magnetic Pulse that will destroy the grid back on earth?  A bedside lamp featuring the image of a nuclear explosion that doesn't destroy any of the Manhattan landmark buildings?  Oh, but wait -- Diablo Canyon decommissioning and demolition framed as being more damaging to the environment than keeping it running… until it needs to be decommissioned and demolished in 20 years? 

• Nukemap by historian Alex Wellerstein created is a do-it-yourself way to launch a nuclear war on… well, anyone, anywhere! Enter the name of the city or area you wish to see nuked, pick out the size of the bomb being dropped, check off a few more boxes et voila! A map showing the target as well as the range of impact from the blast will pop up almost immediately, showing everything from Instantaneously vaporized to merely killed. I suggest you start with the preset for Little Boy, the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, and translate the photos you’ve seen of it into your neighborhood.

Nukemap (below) without selections being made (section on the right).  Select location you wish to target (type in or use preset), and warhead yield (again, preset may be easiest.)  Make sure you click on Casualties and Radioactive Fallout, then click DETONATE.

Nukemap (below) showing the impact of a Hiroshima-sized nuclear bomb dropped on Manhattan.
Scroll down for further information on what those concentric circles indicate. 

Lots to choose from, as this is "high season" for nuclear stories - Hiroshima and Nagasaki anniversaries - even without the added boost from Oppenheimer:

• Tina Cordova:  What ‘Oppenheimer’ Doesn’t Tell You About the Trinity Test - NYTimes Opinion

Downwinder activist Tina Cordova

• The Profiteers of Armageddon - Oppenheimer and the Birth of the Nuclear-Industrial Complex
• 'Oppenheimer' and the story behind those who lost their land to the lab
• Keeping contentious nuclear plant open could cost Californians $45B: report
• The misguided push to weaken nuclear safety standards is gaining steam - Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists
• There’s no such thing as a new nuclear golden age–just old industry hands trying to make a buck
• We can’t afford to be climate doomers - Rebecca Solnit
• Deadly Radioactive Waste 1000 Feet From the Columbia River - Active cleanup halted at Hanford’s 324-Building
• The end of Oppenheimer's energy dream - Modular reactors are supported by ideology alone - Allison Macfarlane, former chair, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Bombs away: Confronting the deployment of nuclear weapons in non-nuclear weapon countries
• What do people who were exposed to radiation in the U.S. nuclear program think of the movie Oppenheimer?  https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/1684685672643260417?s=20
• Take Fukushima nuclear-contaminated waste water dumping case to U.N. General Assembly

NUKEMAP - https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

https://bojacobs.net/

https://youtu.be/ftCcMjXPpII

CBS Sunday Morning report on re-evaluation of film of atomic bomb blasts.

https://www.wagingpeace.org/duck-and-cover-a-pictorial-history-of-nuclear-weapon/?fbclid=IwAR0ESyQ7F7WssfwWJgu3uQPS3nB7oPEfa0PeyJ5ieoChGl84ILrmqUPZA6E

Bob Fahrquar free pdf of book, Duck and Cover: A Pictorial History of Nuclear Weapons

Albert Einstein (l) and J. Robert Oppenheimer, both at the top of the nuclear bomb-creating food chain.

With all the hooplah surrounding the release of Chris Nolan's Oppenheimer film, we weigh in with two experts on nuclear films:

• Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including “Hiroshima in America,” “Atomic Cover-up” and the recent “The Beginning or the End,” about the first Hollywood film ever made about the A-bomb.  He has directed three documentary films since 2021, two for PBS.  For more than 40 years, Greg has written extensively about the atomic bomb, atomic bombings, and their aftermath.

• New Oppenheimer daily newsletter/blog
• Nuclear Hotseat #570 interview with Greg Mitchell on his award-winning documentary, Atomic Cover-Up. 
• Book: The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
• Book:  Atomic Cover-Up
• Trailer and site  for Atomic Cover-up film
• Los Angeles Times Opinion: ‘Oppenheimer’ is here. Is Hollywood still afraid of the truth about the atomic bomb?"

For an additional perspective on Oppenheimer - one that also takes into account Oliver Stone's recent pro-nuclear propaganda "documentary" on nuclear power - Linda Pentz Gunter writes:  "It’s a Tale of Two Directors.  For Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, about the bomb, it’s the best of times.  For Oliver Stone’s lamentable bomb, Nuclear Now, playing to near empty cinemas, it’s clearly the worst."

In 1979 Navajo Nation suffered the worst radioactive materials spill in US history - 90-million gallons of uranium mining waste into the Puerco River that permanently contaminated land and water, devastating the health of the Diné people.  These interviews are from the 40th anniversary of this disaster, which happened only four months after Three Mile Island on July 16 - which is also the anniversary of the Trinity test of the first atomic  bomb. 

Former UNC Church Rock uranium miner Larry J. King (center).  He stands on land which faces
the site of the 1979 uranium tailings pond breach and spill.  Here, he explains what happened during the 40th anniversary commemorative walk in 2019.

Terracita Keyanna, who grew up between two abandoned uranium mines and one mile away from the site of the Church Rock disaster.  "Leetso Dooda" means "No Uranium" in Diné.

Redwater Pond Road Community member Edith Hood, on land across from her home.  Behind her, remains of an unremediated uranium mind.  Down the road less than two miles, the site of the 1979 Church Rock disaster that dumped 90 million gallons of liquid radioactive uranium tailings into the adjacent Puerco River.

Journalist and activist, Mervyn Tilden

The ninety million gallons of liquid radioactive waste that permanently contaminated land and water in Navajo country 24 years ago is the forgotten July 16 tragedy that almost no one talks about

• Linda Pentz Gunter's article, A 90 Million Gallon Nuclear Tragedy - backgrounder on Church Rock
• Dave Kraft of NEIS in Chicago's Op-Ed: A bill ending the ban on new nuclear plants is a referendum on the future of energy in Illinois
• Putting the Nuclear Genie Back in the Bottle - Karl Grossman on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons
• Zoominar from Los Alamos Study Group on: "'The real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets.'* Now it's happening again, on a vast scale. WHY?"   A conversation with acclaimed historian Peter Kuznick, Greg Mello, and community members in Los Alamos, July 22, 6:30 pm.  To register, CLICK here.  

https://youtu.be/c0f1L0XUIQ8

Brilliant, basic talking points on why nuclear power is a bad idea.  USE THIS!