Nuclear Hotseat

SEED Coalition Executive Director Karen Hadden

• Aging nuclear reactors become increasingly dangerous and prone to breakdowns and radiation releases.  According to genuine experts, Comanche Peak's two nuclear reactors should be retired, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering letting them run for 20 additional years, until 2050.
  
  Heading the fight to stop this license extension is Karen Hadden, Executive Director of the SEED Coalition.  She has worked on energy and nuclear power issues since 2000 and won the 2022 Judy Jonsrud Unsung Hero award from Beyond Nuclear for years of anti-nuclear activism.  We spoke about the NRC's last minute shenanigans to avoid facing down concerned, informed citizens - and how it's going to take Congressional hearings to get to the root of all the various NRC operational problems.  We spoke on Monday January 9, 2023.

• ACTION TO TAKE:  Please email the NRC  [email protected], reference Docket ID NRC-2022-0078.  Ask that in-person public meetings be held in Glen Rose, TX when possible to do so safely in terms of Covid.  Deadlines to intervene and request a hearing should be postponed until that time as well. 
  
  • Docket Numbers - Facility Names05000445 - Comanche Peak 1  and 05000446 - Comanche Peak 2  
  • Related DocumentsML23009A036 - 01/17/2023 Environmental Scoping Meeting Related to the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2, License Renewal Application
    
• NRC posted online late on Jan. 9th - less than 24 hours before meetings were scheduled to occur - to postpone the scheduled in-person meetings.  Instead of two 2-hour in-person meetings there will now be one 2-hour Zoom meeting:
  January 17, 1-3 p,m. Central Time. 
  TO ACCESS THE LINK, CLICK HERE. 
  Webinar Meeting Number:214448191912
  Webinar Password:kJ4pGw
  
• SEED (Sustainable Energy & Economic Development) Coalition fought the proposed Comanche Peak 3 and 4 nuclear reactors as well as the proposed South Texas Project nuclear reactors, which were licensed but never built due to public opposition and exposure of the true costs involved. SEED Coalition is actively opposing dangerous nuclear waste storage plans for Texas, and opposes similar plans for New Mexico.  To contact them directly, CLICK HERE.

What could be more numnutz than substituting coal plants for nuclear ones? But this new scheme, Coal to Nuclear, is really about sustaining the nuclear weapons industry.

• ...but but but she HAD to put the nuclear facility's TOP SECRET OPERATING SYSTEM on an UNSECURED USB drive so she could catch up with work on her UNSECURED home computer... in between compiling photos of family and cats, of course!

• PHOTO BOOK: 50 Years in a Nuclear Power Plant Town: Thinking about the Future from Onagawa by Author Mikiko Abe. To order CLICK HERE.

CLICK on photo to purchase book.

• Doomsday Clock Announcement on January 24, 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time
• In memory of Pradeep Indulkar: Join DiaNuke Online Conversation on 21 January 2023
  TIMINGS:
  Moscow- 5:00pm
  Berlin, Paris- 3.00pm
  New Delhi- 7.30pm
  Tokyo- 11:00pm
  New York, Washington, Toronto- 9:00am
  Vancouver, LA- 6:00am
  REGISTRATION LINK

Nukewatch's John LaForge shows latest newsletter on nuclear weapons to Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy via Zoom.

• John LaForge is co-director of Nukewatch, a Wisconsin-based environmental and peace action group, dedicated to the abolition of nuclear power, nuclear weapons and continued radioactive waste production. Nukewatch brings critical attention to the locations, movements, dangers, and the politics of nuclear weapons and dangerous wastes.
  
  John was arrested twice in 2020 after he participated in peaceful protests at the Buchel Air Force Base in Germany to bring attention to U.S. nuclear bombs stockpiled there and aimed at Russia.  After trials in which his most compelling defense information - international treaty laws as they relate to nuclear weapons - was not allowed, he had a choice between paying a modest (for Americans) fine or serving prison time.  He chose prison.
  
  I spoke with John Leforge, who is already in Germany, on Monday, January 2, 2023.  This was  just eight days before he must report to a German prison to serve a term for his non-violent protest.  His insights into what international law says that can be applied to nuclear weapons is a real eye-opener. 

• ARTICLE:  Why John LaForge Won't Pay Fines Imposed for Nuclear Weapons Actions in Germany
• BOOK: NUCLEAR HEARTLAND
• Nukewatch - direct link

After repeated invitations to contribute her "expertise in the space" to a conference promoting small modular reactors, Beyond Nuclear's Linda Pentz Gunter decided to tell them what she would say, given the opportunity.

• When is decontaminated soil not decontaminated?  When you figure out the linguistic manipulation of perception from the nukesters. 

• The 2022 nuclear year in review: A global nuclear order in shambles - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Are the bombs back in town? - UK to host U.S nuclear weapons... again? 

The late Sr. Megan Rice, upon her release from prison for protesting nuclear weapons.

• Sr. Megan Rice was a Roman Catholic nun who was arrested more than 40 times for protesting America’s military industrial complex and nuclear weapons-. She’s best known for breaking into Y-12, one of the world’s largest and most highly guarded uranium storage sites.
  
  But on July 28, 2012, this diminutive octogenarian nun and two other antinuclear activists used simple bolt cutters and their beliefs to walk into Y-12 - and not be noticed for more than 30 minutes!  Our extremely embarrassed government threw the book at these three activists, charging them with “sabotage” - a felony with a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.  She and the others served just over two years before being released.
  
  Sr. Megan passed away on Oct 17, 2021 at the age of 91, and there is no better commemoration of her life and work than her own words, recorded for Nuclear Hotseat on May 25, 2012, just after her release from prison.

Susi Snyder, posing with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Nobel Peace Prize for 2017.
Susi currently is heard on the show speaking on the Don't Bank on the Bomb  program , which she coordinated for eight years.

• Susi Snyder is the Financial Sector Coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. For more than a decade, Susi coordinated the Don’t Bank on the Bomb project, which was her position when we spoke May 10, 2019.  Her information is as relevant now as it was then, and  The report on nuclear bomb producing companies that she references is updated every year, and the 2021 report “Perilous Profiteering: The companies building nuclear arsenals and their financial backers," is available by CLICKING on the title. 

As we celebrate 600 episodes with this week's retrospective, Libbe HaLevy has been announced as the winner of the 2022 Nuclear Free Future Foundation Award for Education.  According to the German newspaper taz, this makes the Nuclear Free Future Award the most important anti-nuclear prize in the world. The following is from their announcement:

• Libbe HaLevy is closing in on her 600th edition of Nuclear Hotseat, the podcast she was inspired to create after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Although cognizant of the nuclear issue years earlier — she was in the Harrisburg area when the Three Mile Island reactor went into partial meltdown — she was compelled to reignite her anti-nuclear passion given what unfolded in Japan and the on-going risk nuclear power continues to pose to us all. The lively weekly podcast features interviews with renowned guests from around the world — and is heard by audiences globally — and remains the only such podcast known to focus exclusively, and in depth, on the perils of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

We'll have more on this announcement in the future, after I've caught my breath. - Libbe.

NOTE:  This is not an all-inclusive rundown of episodes, just a saunter through some thoughts and moments that have stuck with me from the first 11-1/2 years of Nuclear Hotseat production.  All can be searched under the episode number if you wish to listen to the full report:

• NH #1 – The first conference call that turned into a podcast that turned into… well, all the rest.
• NH #7 – Jon Solomon of Eden Foods on safety precautions for foods imported from Japan in the immediate aftermath of Fukushima and FDA insufficiencies.  (Link goes to Episode #174)
• NH #74 – Marius Paul of the Denesuline First Nations people in northern Saskatchewan on his ancestral understanding of “the black stone” – uranium.
• NH #91 – Dr. Helen Caldicott, 2012 Symposium on the Medical and Ecological Impacts of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident.
• NH #483 – Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians with “A Message from the Most Bombed Nation on Earth.”
• NH #423 – Church Rock uranium tailings dam break disaster – Terracita Keyanna of the Red Water Pond Road Community.  (Strong suggestion to listen to the entire SPECIAL on Church Rock.) 
• NH #205 – Sister Megan Rice shortly after her release from two years in prison for participating in a non-violent peace protest of nuclear weapons at the Oak Ridge Y-12 “high security” nuclear facility in Tennessee.  Full episode will appear next week as Nuclear Hotseat #601.
• NH #407 – Three Mile Island: My Trip Back.  Radiation dispersion after the meltdown with Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education, and health impact of radiation exposure with Cindy Folkers of Beyond Nuclear.
• NH #316 – Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons passage – Prof. Heidi Hutner, interviewed from the United Nations less than one hour after the passage of the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons.
• NH #303 – Susi Snyder of Don’t Bank on the Bomb (now with ICAN with an important lesson on how you can take an action, right now, that will remove funding from nuclear weapons producing companies. 

NOTE:  All episodes listed above are available on this website and can be accessed through the search function.

Nuclear Fusion Delusion.

Panel discussion on Nuclear Corruption following a screening of POWER STRUGGLE, Robbie Leppzer's documentary on what it took for citizen activists to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station.

• While "nuclear" and "corruption" deserve to be listed as synonyms in the thesaurus, we don't usually take the time to discuss this as a specific focus.  That's why this panel discussion from The Museum of Political Corruption was so powerful.  Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy both moderated and participated in the session, which took place on Friday, December 6, 2022.  Participants were:
• Robbie Leppzer, director of the film POWER STRUGGLE, whose critically acclaimed feature-length and short documentaries about contemporary social issues, grassroots activism, and multicultural themes have been broadcast by CNN International, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, HBO/Cinemax, CNN, and more.
• Tony Klein was a Vermont State Representative for 14 years from 2002-2016. He served on the House Committee of Natural Resources and Energy for 12 years, the committee responsible for oversight of the majority of issues pertaining to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.
• Linda Pentz Gunter is the international specialist at Beyond Nuclear; writes for and curates Beyond Nuclear International; and was a journalist for 20 years, principally with Reuters and other print and broadcast media. She now contributes regularly to Nuclear Hotseat with the Hot Story.

Panel discussion was followed by a Q&A with viewers. 

Thanks to the producing efforts of the Museum of Political Corruption, spearheaded by Veronica Medina-Matzner and Bruce Broter. If you’re reading this before December 18, 2022, and would like to watch POWER STRUGGLE at no charge, go to Museum of Political Corruption/Power Struggle.

For more information about POWER STRUGGLE or to obtain a DVD of POWER STRUGGLE, visit: www.PowerStruggleMovie.com

For schools and libraries wanting to obtain a copy of POWER STRUGGLE, visit New Day Films at NewDay.com

How can they say that nuclear fusion makes more more power than it takes to create it, but not check back on how much power it REALLY took to make it?  But oh, that's right - nuclear.  You can tell they're lying when they move their lips.