Nuclear Hotseat

Director Heidi Hutner with the poster of her film.

Today is the 44th anniversary of the start of the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I was there, one mile away when it happened, and the experience completely changed the trajectory of my life. For one thing, I would not be producing this program if I hadn’t been there. But while I’ve done my research, read books, viewed films and TV programs, interviewed genuine experts, no one had addressed the human, emotional, personal toll that the accident and its aftermath extracted from the population.

That is, until now. RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island rolls out the story of the 1979 accident and how it affected four mothers from the community. It includes scientific information, of course, but the emphasis is on the human side of the story - the part that the nuclear industry leaves out as it cites statistics and spews false assurances of safety.  It’s a calm, understated, and ultimately devastating film that is already having an impact on those who have seen it, and these are as yet early days.  So it was with special interest that I set up an interview with the woman behind the film. 

• Heidi Hutner is a professor of Literature, Sustainability, Women’s and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University, and a scholar of nuclear and environmental history, literature, film, and ecofeminism. Hutner chaired the Sustainability Studies Program for six years and was Associate Dean in the School of Marine, Atmospheric Science, and Sustainability. She is the winner of Sierra Club Long Island's 2015 Environmentalist of the Year Award and much more.
  
  We spoke on Saturday, March 18, 2023.
  
• Scheduled screenings for RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island are listed at: RadioactivetheFilm.com.

For those who want a more narrative presentation of what happened at Three Mile Island, here's a link to Nuclear Hotseat's anniversary program from 2021:

https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/three-mile-island-nuclear-meltdown-never-forget/

Nuclear Hotseat producer and host Libbe HaLevy’s nuclear memoir is YES, I GLOW IN THE DARK!  One Mile from Three Mile Island to Fukushima and Nuclear Hotseat.  It contains full information on her experience having been one mile from the nuclear accident at TMI when it happened, as well as actions any one of us can take to work against nuclear power and nuclear weapons.  You can purchase your copy of the book HERE. 

CLICK to purchase from Amazon.

While calling it their “final warning”, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, scientists said in their latest report that there is still time for effective options but nuclear power isn’t one of them.

If you're planning to build new nukes in your country, shouldn't you rely on suppliers who actually know what they're doing instead of industry numnutzes?

• Dennis DuVall, 81-year-old anti-nuclear protester is in German prison for actions demanding that U.S. nuclear bombs stationed at Germany's Buchel NATO base be withdrawn. 
  You can write to him during his 60 day sentence at JVA Bautzen, Breitscheid Str. 4, 02625 Bautzen, Germany.  More information (and future updates if he gets moved to another prison) at www.bit.ly/DennisDuVall.
• Putin Says He Could Put Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Belarus by Summer

Tanks of radioactive tritium-contaminated water from Fukushima.  Japan plans to release more than 1.3 million tons of it into the Pacific Ocean,, despite danger to ocean life, onshore populations.

Right now in the news there’s a lot of talk about tritium - Japan’s planned dump of more than 1.3 million tons of radioactive tritium-contaminated water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean.   And in the U.S., decommissioning company Holtec plans here in the U.S. to dump tritium-contaminated water from the Pilgrim nuclear reactor into Cape Cod Bay and from Indian Point into the Hudson River. 

But 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?

• To learn the truth about tritium. I spoke with Tim Deere-Jones.  He is a UK-based marine biologist, researcher and consultant.  He 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

France demonstrates that when you've painted yourself into a nuclear corner, just dump more paint onto the floor!

• New Mexico Law Passes Banning Storage of High Level Nuclear Waste in the State
• Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman - An interview with David Fenton, who discusses his brilliant, just-published and much-needed book, " class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Activist’s Media Handbook. 

Author David Fenton, interviewed by Karl Grossman on his new book,
The Activist's Media Handbook

Mary Oscko (l) and Kay Drey at the Atoms Next Door Symposium, St. Louis, 2016.

• Mary Oscko was a North St. Louis activist in the campaign to clean up Coldwater Creek from WWII Manhattan Project radiation contamination.  Mary grew up around the stream and played in in as a child.  As an adult, she and her husband bought a house backing up to the stream and she ate vegetables from her garden that were watered by the stream.  She was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer despite ever having smoked cigarettes.  She fought the cancer and defied the odds, living another seven years until she passed away on February 20, 2023, at the age of 63.  We spoke on February 20, 2016, at the Atoms Next Door symposium in North St. Louis, when she'd already been diagnosed.  This interview is presented as a memorium. 
  
  
• Reference Man is the standard first developed in 1949 to establish maximum permissible amounts of radioactive materials in the human body.  BUT because humans are so diverse in age, gender, weight, height, lifestyles, geographic locations and other factors, no Reference Man definition can possibly reflect anything other than a scant few individuals from the total population, however he is defined.  But there is a better standard that can be developed to protect the health of us all, and that’s what this week’s interviewee talks about.

Compare the sizes: adult male Reference Man vs. Little Girl
Given their relative body mass, should they be using the same standards to measure suceptibility to radiation damage

There’s an ominous shift toward silencing those deemed not qualified to speak out.  But you don’t need an engineering degree to understand that nuclear power is unacceptably dangerous.

• 12th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan - excellent round-up article by Dr. Ian Fairlie.
• New Nuclear Plants Have Turned Into Money Pits by Linda Pentz Gunter
• The narrow field of options for safely managing Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
• One year later, new dangers threaten Ukraine’s embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by Edwin Lyman
• Nuclear Hotseat #475: Nukegate in Ohio - Nuclear Bailout Scandal explained by Attorney Terry Lodge

Abandoned home, Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, five miles from Fukushima Daiichi. Tomioka resident Yuki Saito measures radiation in the weeds outside the home.  Photo - Yuji Kaneko, used by permission of the photographer.

Beverly Findlay-Kaneko provides an “on-the-ground in Japan” report on the current situation faced by people living with the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.  Beverly lived in Yokohama, Japan, for 20 years until March 2011, after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and the start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.  She worked at Yokohama National University and The Japan Times.  Beverly has a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Stanford University and speaks Japanese fluently.  She is the producer behind our Voices from Japan series and this year is the Voice from Japan.

I spoke with Beverly Findlay-Kaneko on February 27, 2023.

• Hokkaido Nuclear Waste opposition article - Asahi Shimbun
• Yonomori Denim - Sho Kobayashi's business attempting to help rebuild Tomioka in northeast Japan.  You can follow them on Instagram:   @yonomori_denim  .  And here's a QR code, for those who understand how to use one: 

QR Code for Yonomori Denim

• SimplyInfo.org Fukushima Disaster 11th Anniversary Report

Tomarinkan Nuclear Energy PR Center, Tomari, Hokkaido:  Beverly Findlay-Kaneko with the Tomarinkan Mascot cartoon character. (Nicknamed Mr. Nuclear Condom).
Photo - Yuji Kaneko, used by permission of the photographer. 

Yonomori Denim Shop and Meeting Space, Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, five miles from Fukushima Daiichi. Beverly Findlay-Kaneko (front left) and Yuji Kaneko (rear left), meet with Yuki Saito (front right) and Sho Kobayashi.

 The "Nuclear Condom" and the pillar that marks the height of the sea wall at Tomari Nuclear Power Plant.  It’s just one meter taller than the one at Fukushima.
Photo - Yuji Kaneko, used by permission of the photographer. 

Abandoned Tsushima Elementary School Athletic Ground, Tsushima, Fukushima Prefecture.   As one of the last towns to have evacuation orders lifted, Tsushima has been left behind in decontamination efforts. Bags like these, containing radioactive debris and soil, a rare sight in other parts of the prefecture, are ubiquitous here. Tsushima is, for all practical purposes, a ghost town.  Photo - Yuji Kaneko, used by permission of the photographer. 

Denshoukan, the Great Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Museum, Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture. Fukushima is just over the hill, a couple of miles away. Student visitors to the museum flocking back to their tour busses. 
Photo - Yuji Kaneko, used by permission of the photographer. 

Denshoukan, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Museum, Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture. Fukushima Daiichi is just over the hill, a couple of miles away. Beverly points out fleet of tour busses parked and waiting for high school students inside. 
Photo - Yuji Kaneko, used by permission of the photographer. 

Poster for Halt Holtec event in Massachusetts on March 27, 2023

Big nuclear decommissioning companies are planning to release radioactive tritium-contaminated water into major bodies of water. We usually think of this in connection with Japan, where they plan to discharge 1.3 million TONS of Fukushima's radioactive water over the objections of Japanese citizens, the fishing industry, China, South Korea, and the Pacific Islanders. Outrageous - but if one lives in the U.S., there is a similar threat much closer to home, in Massachusetts and New York, and that’s what we look at this week.

• Diane Turco is Director of the Cape Downwinders on Cape Cod, a group that's been fighting issues at the Pilgrim nuclear power reactor for more than 40 years.  With decommissioning company Holtec barreling ahead on its decision to release radioactive water from Pilgrim’s spent fuel pools directly into Cape Cod Bay, possibly as soon as this summer, there’s been tremendous outcry against it.  We last spoke with Diane Turco on Pilgrim problems for Nuclear Hotseat #550 on January 4, 2022; in the more than year that has passed, much more has come to the fore. 
  We spoke this time on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

Poster for Stop Holtec rally in Massachusetts on March 27, 2023

• Manna Jo Greene has been the Environmental Director for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater for more than 20 years – and has been one of the leaders in the battle to shut down Indian Point, the nuclear reactor facility located only 36 miles from midtown Manhattan.  We spoke on the day of the shutdown – Friday, February 17, 2023.

• HALT HOLTEC PETITION MA - sign and share.
• Experts explain how tritium in water impacts health and safety
• Exploring Tritium Dangers
• Videos and Slides from Forum on Indian Point

Putin’s suspension of the New START Treaty has provoked condemnation, but is a treaty that accepts the preservation of nuclear weapons worth saving?

Come to the latest vacation hot spot... Fukushima???

• Zoominar:  No Miracles Needed: How Today's Technology Can Sav Our Climate and Clean Our Air - Scroll down for First Friday Series.
• Sign to support HB1079, Illinois' moratorium on the building of new nuclear power plants until the federal government has a working permanent repository for high level spent fuel. 
• " class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"Daisy"  ad from the 1964 election campaign of Lyndon Johnson for President:

https://youtu.be/riDypP1KfOU