Nuclear Hotseat

Dr. Robert Dodge of PSR-LA

• The 37th annual 2026 Nuclear Weapons Programs Tax Calculator, released by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), demonstrates exactly how much every woman, man, child and even infant in the United States pays in annual tax dollars to support nuclear weapons - whether we want it to or not.
  
  PSR-LA's  Dr. Robert Dodge (Bob) has authored this report since its inception. He is a family physician practicing in Ventura, California who serves on the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles, and as co-chair of the Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons of National Physicians for Social Responsibility.
  
  Physicians for Social Responsibility is the US Affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War which received the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize, and is a partner organization of ICAN, recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. He also serves on the Back from the Brink (www.preventnuclearwar.org) steering committee. 
  
  As Bob Dodge says:  "Learn how 'your tax dollars at work' really means 'your tax dollars usurped to line the pockets of the nuclear industry, AI, and the war machine while giving you nothing that sustains and supports your life.' Then - get to work to change it!" (For how to do this SEE: LYNDA WILLIAMS REPORT BELOW.)

• PSR - 2026 Nuclear Weapons Programs Tax Calculator
• BACK FROM THE BRINK
• Nukemap
• PSR Nuclear Famine Report
• NH #596:  Nuclear Reactor Radiation Health Impact on Kids – New Baby Tooth Study – Joseph Mangano - More on the baby tooth study that revealed Strontium 90 in baby teeth and led to the founding of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). 

• Physicist Lynda Williams goes over pending NRC regulations changes and the tiny window of opportunity to respond, why each response is so important, and suggested language you can copy and past is at:  nuclearfreehawaii.substack.com. 

• Lynda Williams substack w/all her articles. NuclearFreeHawaii

On Lawrence O'Donnell's cable show The Last Word, former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz states that Iran already has uranium enrichment levels that could be used to make a bomb (info Nuclear Hotseat presented on Episode #732 from July 3, 3025 in an interview with Dr. Gordon Edwards of Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibililty) -- but O'Donnell's segment disappears when the show is posted!  Censorship, clumsiness, sabotage, or ???

A 1988 political cartoon in the Akron Beacon Journal touches on the controversy at the Industrial Excess Landfill.

• Northeast Ohio superfund site Industrial Excess Landfill (IEL) has been shown to use questionable methodology, which enables the EPA to avoid observing levels of radioactivity that it prefers not to have to deal with at the IEL – despite flaws pointed out by the agency’s own Science Advisory Board. And the EPA rehires Tetra Tech for remediation despite numerous mistakes spotlighted by the Project on Government Oversight.
  
  Reporter Greg Schwartz has covered this situation and others demonstrating EPA collusion with nuclear polluters. He is a freelance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in covering environmental justice issues. He has a Master’s degree in Journalism & Mass Communication from Kent State University in his native region of Northeast Ohio. He won a Lone Star Award for investigative reporting from the Houston Press Club in 2010, for his San Antonio Current story on the city’s “toxic triangle” area, and is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Articles by Greg Schwartz:

• 2006 - http://www.freetimes.com/story/4185" class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cleveland Free Times - Buried Secrets
• 2020 - SF Bayview series
• 2020 - Hindsight brings corrupted radiation testing into focus at the EPA – Part 3
• 2024 - Counterpunch story on the IEL
• 2025 - Counterpunch story on Diablo Canyon

From Physicist Lynda Williams: 

URGENT Action Alert - COMMENT BY MAY 4:

• The @NRCgov wants to replace its independent safety review with secret DOE & DOW approvals, letting companies use a small test nuclear reactor’s safety permit to license a full commercial scale one — possibly dozens clustered at a data center coming to a community near you. This will exclude public oversight and legal action. Thismust be stopped.
• SUGGESTED WORDING: 
  “I oppose Docket NRC-2025-1503. Independent NRC safety review cannot be replaced by secret DOE or DOW authorizations the public cannot access or challenge.”
• Comment by May 4:


  Access site for comments here:  https://www.regulations.gov/docket/NRC-2025-1503

• Alistair Burnett, Head of Media for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), reports from ICAN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with the latest on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
  Alistair includes brief interviews with:
  
  • Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists
  • Grethe Ostern of Norwegian People’s Aid and lead author of the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor.

The Elephant's Foot - Chernobyl's melted radioactive core

Russian drone attack punches hole in New Safe Confinement structure; $2 billion minimum to fix!

• Nuclear engineer and whistleblower Arnie Gundersen explains the nature of the damage created by the February 14, 2025 drone attack on Chernobyl, which blew a hole in the New Safe Confinement structure and set the insulation on fire.  Then he compares the severity of Chernobyl with Fukushima - which one was a worse nuclear disaster?  The answer may surprise you!

• 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 experienc on her health and on her children.

• The longest war tax protest in U.S. history began with one couple’s conscientious refusal to pay for nuclear weapons or war, a commitment that inspired supporters nationwide and built community through the power of nonviolent direct action. Here with another story from our shared history of resisting nukes - is Jack Cohen-Joppa, co-coordinator of the Nuclear Resister.
• National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee

A growing body of technical evidence is raising urgent concerns about a potential double standard in nuclear safety enforcement by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Drawing on decades of regulatory precedent, nuclear engineer and expert witness Arnie Gundersen warns that the NRC is failing to apply the same rigorous inspection and root-cause analysis standards at the Palisades reactor that were historically required at facilities such as Millstone Unit 1 and Turkey Point. The result, he argues, is a dangerous erosion of safeguards designed to prevent predictable, high-consequence failures.

Arnie Gundersen

Gundersen is a nuclear engineer, whistleblower, and green energy advocate who has been a consulting expert on many nuclear reactor issues, most specifically to me the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear power station in southern California.

I spoke with Arnie Gundersen on April 3, 2026

• Peter Thiel, Nuclear Power, and Weapons-Usable Uranium Enrichment: A Billionaire’s Power Play
• Washington Post Promotes Nuclear Agenda Tied to Bezos’ Investments
• Don’t Waste Michigan contacts:
  
  • Michael Keegan (734) 770-1441
  • Kevin Kamps  (269) 217-6326

Susi Snyder of ICAN

How do we stop nuclear weapons from being manufactured in the first place? Follow the money — and then stop it. And there’s something easy that any one of us can do to dry up nuclear’s financial pipeline, at no cost to you and requiring very little time.

To learn more, Susi Snyder explains. She is the Director of Programmes at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, where her responsibilities include facilitating the development and execution of ICAN's key programmes. This includes management of ICAN's divestment work and engagement with the financial sector.


For more than a decade, Susi coordinated the Don’t Bank on the Bomb divestment project. She is an expert on nuclear weapons, with over two decades experience working at the intersect between nuclear weapons and human rights.

https://www.dontbankonthebomb.com/at-great-cost/

I have the privilege of working with some tremendously skilled, knowledgeable, big-hearted people for this show, but we’re usually so focused on the work at hand that we don’t get to engage in longer, more wide-ranging conversations.

Linda Pentz Gunter

That’s why this week’s featured interview is a particular joy for me. It is with Linda Pentz Gunter. She is a former journalist with Reuters, USA Network, The Times (UK) and other outlets; founder and Executive Director of Beyond Nuclear; and the head of the Beyond Nuclear International newsletter, which she curates and writes for - a great source of reliable nuclear information.

She’s also the brains and voice behind the Nuclear Hotseat Hot Story, a regular feature on the show since 2022.

Her new book, No To Nuclear. Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress and Provokes War was published in March 2026 by Pluto Press, and that's what we talk about while finding the time for sarcasm, jokes, and several good laughs.

I spoke with Linda Pentz Gunter on March 27, 2026

Linda can be reached at: [email protected]

• Pluto Press, which published NO TO NUCLEAR, is running a special on the book - 40% off until April 8, 2026. 
• Linda cited M. V. Ramana's book, NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change. Another good one to add to your bookshelf. 
• LINK to Nuclear Hotseat #742 interview with M. V. Ramana on his book, NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change.