Nuclear Hotseat

With Japan's pending release of 1.3 million tons of Tritium-contaminated radioactive water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approval of that plan, it is time for an examination of the issues behind this wrongheaded assault upon people and the environment.  To find out various hidden aspects of the issue, Nuclear Hotseat provides five separate segments

• Nuclear Hotseat Hot Story with Linda Pentz Gunter considers that the IAEA's vested interest in promoting nuclear power should disqualify the agency as a nuclear safety watchdog.
• Marine Biologist Tim Deere-Jones takes on the whistleblower leak of an internal IAEA document from June 21, which shows collusion between the agency and the government of Japan over how the announcement of approval of the water release was to be handled to minimize public fear and response.  Japan has dismissed the document as a "fraud;" neither TEPCO nor IAEA has said anything else.  What's the bigger story?

UK-based marine biologist Tim Deere-Jones

• Filmmaker Philippe Carillo (The Fukushima Disaster: The Hidden Side of the Story) talks about Japan's campaign to propagandize south Pacific journalists into only believing the talking points they've been fed and not to look further.  (LINKS to his film posted below.)
• The Honorable Andrew Napuat, a Member of Parliament for Vanuatu, an island nation in the south Pacific, explains how his country and others have been manipulated to not speak out against the water release or risk "friendly" relations with Japan.

Vanuatu Member of Parliament, the Honorable Andrew Soloman Napuat

• Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy draws on her Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology to explain how Genomics - the imprint of trauma on DNA - travels through generations and expresses itself in individuals who never went through the initial trauma.  Might the genomic imprint of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki be what's behind Japan's insistance on "nuking" the Pacific with radioactive waste water?

• Philippe Carillo's film, The Fukushima Disaster: The Hidden Side of the Story), the full film, is now available on Amazon, iTunes, Google play and Vimeo on Demand:
  
  • https://www.journeyman.tv/film/8421/the-fukushima-disaster
  • https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-fukushima-disaster/id1672643918?ls=1
  • https://www.amazon.co.uk/placeholder_title/dp/B0B8TK5FZC/ref=sr_1_1
  • https://play.google.com/store/movies/details?id=vehqb5ex-L8.P&sticky_source_country=US&gl=US&hl=en&pli=1

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thefukushimadisaster

Trailer for The Fukushima Disaster: The Hidden Side of the Story

• NPR interview with marine biologist Bob Richmond - a research professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Google map photo of Fukushima water tank storage, showing open, unused land surrounding it which could be used to expand the radioactdive water storage area.  Japan and TEPCO are acting like they have run out of space for storage, which they most definitely have not; they're just not willing to spend the money. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has - no surprise - given its stamp of approval to Japan to dump 1.3 million tons of radioactive tritium-contaminated water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean. And in the U.S., decommissioning company Holtec plans to dump their tritium-contaminated water from the Pilgrim nuclear reactor into Cape Cod Bay, and from Indian Point into the Hudson River.

But no one bothers to ask, what is tritium?  Is it dangerous?  What does it do? How does it behave in water? What is the truth of what we will face if Japan and Holtec get away with these water dumps? What might happen to us if they do?  And the meta question: what is the IAEA's right to approve this nuclear pollution of the ocean, and who set the standards by which this level of contamination is allowed?

• To learn the truth about tritium. I spoke with Tim Deere-Jones. He is a UK-based marine biologist, researcher and consultant.  Tim specializes in analysis of the radiation threats to our planet’s waters from a wide range of nuclear sources. Here, he gives a brief, powerful explanation of what we are up against.
• LINK to Tim Deere-Jones’ document containing notes and links behind this week’s interview,
• LINK to Dr. Ian Fairlie on Tritium Radiation Lies from Nuclear Hotseat #433

Conference on the International Legal Issues Response for Discharging Fukushima Nuclear Water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-W1c-EcXLg

It was hard not to gloat last week when a corrupt Ohio politician got a long prison sentence for leading a criminal racketeering scheme using bribes from a failing nuclear company.

• Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna On the Fukushima Treated Nuclear Wastewater

• Nuclear Contaminated Water Dumping: IAEA Concludes ‘Absolute Safety of Nuclear Contaminated Water’ with Japanese Government Money?

1.3 million tons of radioactive water at Fukushima that IAEA and Japan have already agreed to release into the Pacific Ocean. This shows the "outhouse" through which the radioactive water will be pumped.

A whistleblower released an internal International Atomic Energy Agency document that reveals collusion between IAEA and Japan to minimize the public's fears about the planned radioactive water release from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean.  The document was released to nuclear-news.net  -  CLICK HERE to access story and copy of the document.  If this is proven to be true, it shows that the IAEA is fully aware of the dangers of the water and is willing to do anything in its power to facilitate the release. 

• Dave Kraft is a safe-energy/anti-nuclear advocate, and co-founder of Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS), based in Chicago, who has served as its director since its inception in 1981. Kraft’s interest in the environment moved him to found NEIS with seven other people, to provide the public with credible information about the hazards and effects of nuclear power and waste, and the viable means to replace them.
  
  Kraft has testified in hearings related to nuclear power at the state and federal levels; and is a co-founder of the Radiation Monitoring Project, designed to provide training and field monitors to communities contaminated by radioactive substances. He has received recognition and awards for his work, including, in May 2016, the Judith Johnsrud “Unsung Hero of the Year” award for his lifelong activism.
  
  I spoke with Dave Kraft on June 25, 2023.
• LINK to NEIS petition opposing construction of new nuclear reactors in Illinois, and supporting 100% renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, and transmission improvements.

The Fukushima radioactive waste dump -- which could start next month --  is part of an attempt to erase the nuclear accident altogether.

• Japanese lawmaker proposes novel wxay of storing irradiated Fukushima water
• 2023 Hiroshima ICAN Academy - information and application for under-25 international activists.
• Arjun Makhijani's new book - Exploring Tritium Dangers

Zoomathon interview (more more than you heard!) with the brilliant  Prof. Steven Starr (l)

• Professor Steven Starr directed the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at the University of Missouri in Columbia for 11 years until his retirement in 2021. He is an Associate of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and has been a Board Member and Senior Scientist with Physicians for Social Responsibility. Starr also teaches a class for the MU Peace Studies Program entitled Nuclear Weapons: Environmental, Health, and Social Effects. Starr began making presentations at side panels at the United Nations in 2007, sometimes working as an expert witness for Switzerland, New Zealand, and Chile at the UN offices in NYC and Geneva. In 2010, Starr addressed the UN First Committee, discussing the environmental consequences of nuclear war, including nuclear winter and nuclear famine.
  
  I spoke with Steven Starr on June 19, 2023.

Steven Starr LINKS:

• Website - Nuclear Famine.  Be sure to scroll down on home page to see all the articles available on a wide range of nuclear issues.
• Short version of talking points covered in today's interview.  
• Contact Steven Starr

So exactly what could the U.S. buy instead of nukes with $76,500... A MINUTE?!????!

• Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (space4peace.org ) is hosting online its 31st annual conference via Zoom: Latest developments on war via space.  It will be held on July 15 at 9-11 a.m. Eastern time.  You must register for the event in advance. 
  REGISTER HERE.

Daniel Ellsberg, (1931-2023)

• Daniel Ellsberg, military analyst, activist, and the man responsible for giving us the Pentagon Papers, died on June 16 at the age of 92.  A lifelong opponent of nuclear war, he authored The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner,  Secrets: A Memoirs f Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, and was the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America.  Two links:
• Daniel Ellsberg's  Message to Us and to Future Generations from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Excerpts from video interviews with Daniel Ellsberg and a memorial from Mary Beth Brangan and Jim Heddle of EON - the Ecological Options Network
  
• Don't Bank on the Bomb - on how YOU (yes, YOU!) can call your bank and make the case that they should not be invested in nuclear weapons.  A process that has been hugely successful in Europe and Scandinavia.  It can be in the U.S. and more!

Damacio Lopez (l) and Norbert Suchanek during a break from the 2023 International Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

• Depleted Uranium expert, academic and activist Damacio Lopez explains how DU weapons were developed only 2 miles from his childhood home in Socorro, New Mexico; his trips to Iraq to measure radiation from DU weapons; & his drive to contact Ukraine's President Zelensky.
• To contact Damacio Lopez: [email protected]

https://vimeo.com/174679807

Trailer for film on depleted uranium by Norbert Suchanek featuring Damacio Lopez

A tongue-in-cheek look at some of the "highlights" from Nuclear Hotseat's 12th year, with excerpts that never made it into the program that focus on:

• How I gently guide guests into giving the best interview possible.
• Maintaining a peaceful environment for each interview.
• How I am sometimes overwhelmed by what I’ve just learned from a guest.
• Examples of the meticulous preparation I always take that is necessary to creating a smoothly running interview.
• Times when my inspired-in-the-moment insights burst forth, in all their disorganized glory.
• And then there are my carefully researched talking points.

All of which go into making Nuclear Hotseat a weekly informational grab-bag of nuclear information, insights, humor , and actions we can take.  It's certainly better than sitting out Armageddon! 

Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy, addressing the audience
at the 2023 International Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

• Bellona Foundation report: The Radiation Risks of Seizing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.  The Bellona Foundation is an independent non-profit organization that aims to meet and fight the climate challenges, by identifying and implementing sustainable environmental solutions