Nuclear Hotseat

• Philippe Carillo has made a 52-minute film that busts the myths of nuclear reactor safety that is clear, easily understood, and devastatingly powerful.  Philippe is a French citizen currently living in the Vanuatu archipelago.  While living in Paris, he worked on several major documentary projects for the BBC, 20th Century Fox, French National TV, and independent film productions. He moved to Hollywood in 2003 and made his first feature documentary in Hollywood in 2013, Inside the Garbage of the World. The film won 3 awards, was distributed worldwide, and inspired a wave of change regarding plastic pollution.  
  
  Philippe moved to Vanuatu in 2017 and has since made more than100 short films in that country.  In 2022, he decided to finish his feature documentary about Fukushima which was started in 2016. That film, FUKUSHIMA Disaster – The Hidden Side of the Story, was the topic of our conversation.
  
  I spoke with Philippe Carillo on Friday, April 14, 2023.

Watch the one-minute trailer here: 

https://youtu.be/kBqk0OtlE8k

Purchase/Rent Film Here:

• Distributor: https://www.journeyman.tv/film/8421/t...
• iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the...
• Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/placeholder_...
• Amazon USA: https://www.amazon.com/Fukushima-Disa...
• Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/movies/...
• Vimeo on Demand:  https://vimeoondemand.com/thefukushimadisaster

IMDB COMMENT LINK:  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26734180/reviews/?ref_=tt_ov_rt
Note that you will need to sign up for a free IMDB account to be able to post. 

Raw Footage of Interviews - scroll down page: https://exposurefilmstrust.com/?fbclid=IwAR3cLVrJ0-AA9nHRwFdXMRllyQlSlxOwJMew3iOPWvVzMdpk8y40GOChWkk " class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark"> https://exposurefilmstrust.com/?fbclid=IwAR3cLVrJ0-AA9nHRwFdXMRllyQlSlxOwJMew3iOPWvVzMdpk8y40GOChWkkhttps://exposurefilmstrust.com/?fbclid=IwAR3cLVrJ0-AA9nHRwFdXMRllyQlSlxOwJMew3iOPWvVzMdpk8y40GOChWkk " class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark">

To contact Philippe Carillo: [email protected], www.exposurefilmstrust.com

Is nuclear reprocessing really just recycling as the industry would have you believe?  Absolutely not!  (Just ask the goats...)

Protest against nuclear reprocessing from French goats pulls no punches... or head butts.

Aw, poor widdle radioactive nuclear waste!  Sooooo misunderstood... NOT!  No matter what apologias the New York Times chooses to print about it. 

• More information on the Marshall Islands and U.S. radiation research on the unwilling victims of our nuclear testing program:  https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/nuclear-justice-sought-for-marshall-islands/
• More on the Marshall Islands: the film Nuclear Savage by Adam Jonas Horowitz

The "elephant's foot" - still highly radioactive molten core of Chernobyl

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.

• CLICK HERE for a free PDF of 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.

A  souvenir of Chernobyl.

World Nuclear Industry Status Report
To access PDF of this 385 page report, CLICK ON IMAGE

The conclusion to last week's interview by Libbe HaLevy, joined by Linda Pentz Gunter, with three of the lead researchers/writers/creators of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report:

• Mycle Schneider works as independent international analyst and consultant on energy and nuclear policy, based in Paris. He is the initiator and Convening Lead Author of the World Nuclear Industry Status Reports.
• M. V. Ramana is Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA), University of British Columbia.
• Michael Sailer is an independent consultant on nuclear energy. He has more than 40 years of experience in the field, most notably regarding the safety of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities, and the storage and final disposal of nuclear and other radioactive wastes.

This is Part 2 of the interview. Part 1 is in last week's show,  Nuclear Hotseat #616 from April 11, 2023

• To access a free pdf of the 2022 World Nuclear Industry Status Report, CLICK HERE.

Germany shut down its last nuclear power plants last weekend. Contrary to false propaganda, Germany’s nuclear phaseout made the renewable revolution possible and it’s well on track to carbon neutral.

Cover of 2023 IUFF program.

Hi All - I'm honored to have been asked to attend the 2023 International Uranium Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a Special Guest.  I'll not only be covering and reviewing each of the films, I'll be:

• Reporting on each of the films to put you in the front row.
• Interviewing filmmakers for upcoming episodes of Nuclear Hotseat
• Introducing Heidi Hutner's film, RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island
• Networking with filmmaker/activists from around the world for information exchange and future actions.
• Bringing it all to you with a (technology permitting) LIVESTREAM. 

Travel expenses remain an issue.  Because of the award I received when I won the 2022 Nuclear Free Future Award for Education, I'm able to cover the cost of the flights.  However, I need help with the other expenses, including housing, meals, ground transportation, and care for my dog Munchkin while I'm gone.  That's where YOU come in! 

To help with a donation, please CLICK HERE.
For any donation of $100 or more, as a BONUS you can
book a 30-minute One-on-One 30-minute Zoom call with me - for you alone or for your group. 
It's a great way to do some focused brainstorming and problem-solving about actions
to help you with whatever nuclear problems you are facing! 
Many thanks for all your support!

Mycle Schneider (photo credit:  ©Nina Schneider)

M.V. Ramana (l) and Michael Sailer (r), World Nuclear Industry Status Report

Libbe HaLevy is joined by Linda Pentz Gunter to interview three of the lead researchers/writers/creators of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report: 

• Mycle Schneider works as independent international analyst and consultant on energy and nuclear policy, based in Paris. He is the initiator and Convening Lead Author of the World Nuclear Industry Status Reports.
• M. V. Ramana is Professor and Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA), University of British Columbia.
• Michael Sailer is an independent consultant on nuclear energy. He has more than 40 years of experience in the field, most notably regarding the safety of nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities, and the storage and final disposal of nuclear and other radioactive wastes.

This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview.  The conclusion will appear in next week's show, Nuclear Hotseat #617 for April 18, 2023.

World Nuclear Industry Status Report
To access PDF of this 385 page report, CLICK ON IMAGE

"24/7 carbon-free energy" - my posterior!  Nuscale corporate branding ad pushes the nuclear industry and their proposed, not even built yet small modular NUCLEAR reactors WITHOUT ONCE saying the words "NUCLEAR" or "REACTOR" or "MAKES RADIOACTIVE WASTE THAT IS DANGEROUS FOR 240,000 YEARS!"  Who are they trying to fool?  Oh, yeah - everybody. 

https://youtu.be/-Bfu1A3AzpU

Nuscale ad promoting nuclear energy and small modular nuclear reactors while avoiding the word "nuclear."

The DOE wants to build new reactors, full size ones. And the price? As much as $5 trillion? What?!?!??? That’s more than the entire nuclear weapons budget, which is nuts enough!

Linda Modica of the Erwin Citizens Awareness Network, an organizer of the People's Hearing for Nuclear Awareness.

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 has been imprisoned for over 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.

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

This month will mark 37 years since the Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster.   Beyond the suffering of humans, what do we know about the health of dogs left behind in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone?

Chernobyl dog, with New Safe Containment building in background.

• One more time - check out Don't Bank on the Bomb.