Nuclear Hotseat

This Week’s Featured Interview: Linda Pentz Gunter founded Beyond Nuclear in 2007 and serves as its international specialist, as well as its media and development director. Prior to her work in anti-nuclear advocacy, she was a journalist for 20 years in print and broadcast, working for USA Network, Reuters, The Times (UK) and other US...

Nuclear Films:  The International Uranium Film Festival Co-founders, General Director Norbert Suchanek (l) and
Managing Director Marcia Gomes de Oliveira (l) being interviewed by Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy.

This Week's Featured Interview:

Nuclear Films:  Norbert Suchanek (l) and Marcia Gomes de Oliveira
at the International Uranium Film Festival in Quebec in 2015.

• Norbert Suchanek, Founder and General Director of the International Uranium Film Festival - now in its 11th year - previews this year's slate of films.  He also announces a unique highlight of this year’s proceedings: a live Zoom meeting that brings together indigenous people from two hemispheres, from Navajo Nation in the United States and Brazil, to share the truth of uranium mining on native lands and how film can influence understanding enough to stop it.
  
  International Uranium Film Festival runs May 19-29 - in-person in Rio de Janeiro or online.  All films are free to view. 
• Arnie Gundersen briefly weighs in on the nuclear industry's loudly touted claim that it produces "20% of the world's electricity" - and why that is a lie.  Always fun to hear Arnie interpret what the nukesters say... and what they are hiding. 

Links:

• Cape Cod town leaders oppose radioactive water release in Cape Cod Bay.
• Uranium mill near Bears Ears has become 'America’s cheapest radioactive waste dump
• War in Ukraine puts New Mexico lab’s mission in spotlight - Los Alamos National Laboratory's Plutonium Pit production ramp-up and why it's not a good idea.
• Cleanup of abandoned uranium mines on Navajo Nation Land - "Environmental justice, social injustice, flat-out racism"
• 100 people with rare cancers  attended same NJ high school
• What it’s like to live next door to a bomb stronger than 20 Hiroshimas in a time of rising worldwide tensions.

This Week’s Featured Interview: Norbert Suchanek, Founder and General Director of the International Uranium Film Festival – now in its 11th year – previews this year’s slate of films. He also announces a unique highlight of this year’s proceedings: a live Zoom meeting that brings together indigenous people from two hemispheres, from Navajo Nation in...

NUCLEAR UKRAINE:  Radiation warning signs abound in Chernobyl (this one outside the abandoned town of Pripiat) but Russian troops (and their bosses!) were ignorant of the risks when they were sent out to dig trenches in the most radioactive area of the Exclusion Zone. 

This Week's Featured Interview:

• Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education and a licensed nuclear reactor operator, provides a more nuanced view of the consequences of Russian troop actions at Chernobyl.  He also gets into how the dangers created by the loss of power to the New Containment  Building have much to teach us about American nuclear reactors - including how the U.S. nuclear industry changed laws and regulations to allow less-protected reactors to be built.  He also covers parallels between how the facility operators at Chernobyl reacted to the dangerous loss of offsite power to the emergency response of plant manager Masao Yoshida at the Fukushima during the worst hours of the triple-meltdown disaster.
  
• Joseph Mangano is an epidemiologist and founder of Radiation and Public Health Project.  Here, he provides a few insights into the health problems the Russian troops can expect to experience as a result of digging trenches and being out in the field of the Red Forest - the most radioactive area of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

Give a man or woman a fish, they'll eat for a day.  Teach them to fish, they'll eat for a lifetime.  Grow some fish in tritium irradiated water from Fukushima... and do you really think that will make people to trust that the fish is OK so you can dump your radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean?  (Meanwhile, a lot of us have given up sushi for good...)

Links:

• Russian  Blunders in Chernobyl: "They Came and Did Whatever They Wanted" - Round-up article of what's been learned thus far about the damages done to the site - and their own troops - when Russia held control of the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
• Ukrainians shocked by 'crazy' scene at Chernobyl after Russian pullout reveals radioactive contamination - Another strong article providing dramatic reports on exactly what the Russian troops did inside the New Containment Building and on the grounds.
• Is contaminated soil from the (Fukushima) nuclear accident waste? A valuable resource?
• More Nuclear Hotseat episodes following the Nuclear Ukraine story:
  • NH #563: UK Marine Biologist Tim Deere-Jones fills in the picture of radiation risks, IAEA minimizing reports, radioactive Russian troops as Ukraine regains control of Chernobyl. https://bit.ly/3JfknD1
  • NH #562:  Ukraine shows that all nuclear reactors are targets of war, not only Zaporizhzhia & Chernobyl. Your neighborhood nuke is a dirty bomb on the ground. Dr. Paul Dorfman, nuclear consultant to governments, on why renewables are our only option.
  • NH #561:  Author Kate Brown and veteran activist Harvey Wasserman on continuing Chernobyl radiation risks in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine - radiation lab blown up, forest fires in radioactive exclusion zone.

This Week’s Featured Interview: Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education and a licensed nuclear reactor operator, provides a more nuanced view of the consequences of Russian troop actions at Chernobyl. He also gets into how the dangers created by the loss of power to the New Containment Building have much to teach us...

Ukranian soldier at Chernobyl re-plants his national flag after Russian soldiers exposed to on-site radioactivity sicken, panic, retreat.  New Confinement Structure that encases the radioactive remains of the 1986 nuclear disaster seen in background.  

Nuclear Ukraine, Month 2: Chernobyl evacuated by Radioactive Russian troops who are sickening, perhaps dying, from radiation exposure.  FULL CHERNOBYL UPDATE on contamination risks. 

BREAKING: DRONE FOOTAGE OF RUSSIAN TRENCHES AT CHERNOBYL AND PROXMITY TO THE CONTAINMENT BUILDING OVER THE HIGHLY RADIOACTIVE RUINS:

Go to:  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/100002022159635/videos/742329896935558

Working to get a viewable link here.  Stay tuned!   

This Week's Featured Interview:

• Tim Deere-Jones is a UK-based marine biologist with priority focus on hydrocarbons, marine radioactivity, and hazards associated with Nuclear Submarine deployment.  Tim's been a guest on Nuclear Hotseat several times (SEE: Featured Nuclear Hotseat Guests feature below).  Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he's been a steady source of nuclear information that has not yet made its way to U.S. media.  So here, we take advantage of his expertise to construct a sequence of what’s been happening in Chernobyl since February 24… and why, even though Russia has now retreated, the dangers from the occupation of the site are far from over. I spoke with Tim Deere-Jones on Monday, April 4, 2022.
• LINK to Tim Deere-Jones Facebook Page.

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear boneheadedness):

Would you trust AI and robots to decommission your radioactive nuclear site?  I mean, the so-called "experts" claim that it's "faster" and "cheaper" than relying on humans... but "fast" and "cheap" are two words you never want used in connection with any kind of nuclear anything!

Links:

• Acute Radiation Sickness Fact Sheet from the Center for Disease Control.
• Uranium industry is the latest to hop on the bandwagon taking advantage of tragedy in Ukraine 
• Worker Lockout Is New Worry at Pilgrim Nuclear Plant

Nuclear Ukraine, Month 2: Chernobyl evacuated by Radioactive Russian troops who are sickening, perhaps dying, from radiation exposure. FULL CHERNOBYL UPDATE on contamination risks. BREAKING: DRONE FOOTAGE OF RUSSIAN TRENCHES AT CHERNOBYL AND PROXMITY TO THE CONTAINMENT BUILDING OVER THE HIGHLY RADIOACTIVE RUINS: Go to: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100002022159635/videos/742329896935558 Working to get a viewable link here. Stay...

Nuclear reactors = dirty bombs in your backyard.  Dr. Paul Dorfman on international issues, climate change, why renewables have “already won,” and taking back power through social media.

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED INTERVIEW:

• Dr. Paul Dorfman is the Founder of the Nuclear Consulting Group; a Member of the Irish Govt. Environment Protection Agency Radiation Protection Member of the International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group; Consultant to Greenpeace Environmental Trust, and much more.  He regularly consults with governments on their nuclear policy, and is regularly interviewed by major media outlets.  We spoke on Thursday, March 24, 2022.
• Dr. Paul Dorfman Twitter:  @dorfman_p  
• Nuclear Consulting Group:  www.nuclearconsult.com

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

You’re holding a conference on nuclear safety WHERE????!!!!?!?!???

LINKS: 

• NH #509: Three Mile Island Nuclear Meltdown at 42: Never Forget! - Encore presentation
• Could an attack on Ukrainian nuclear facilities cause a disaster greater than Chernobyl? Possibly, simulations show.
• What is the risk of a nuclear accident in Ukraine? A radiation expert speaks from Kyiv.   
• Ukraine says Russian forces near Chernobyl could pose new radiation threat. 
• Nobel Laureates Call for End to Ukraine War and Rejection of Nuclear Weapons.
• Republicans offer Russian uranium ban. 
• Nixed Russian fuel supply complicates Natrium schedule. 

Chernobyl radiation risks continue in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine - radiation lab blown up, forest fires in radioactive exclusion zone. PLUS new 7.3 quake at Fukushima, damage to radwaste storage tanks, fuel pools on this week’s Nuclear Hotseat with host Libbe HaLevy (lee-BEE ha-LAY-vee) - [DAY] at [TIME] on [STATION]

Chernobyl Radiation Lab Destroyed, Radioactive Forest Fires, History with Kate Brown + Fukushima 7.3 Earthquake Damage

• Kate Brown, author of the award-winning Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future, is a historian of environmental and nuclear history at MIT and the author of Plutopia, which won seven major awards.  Here, she shares information that is as timely now as it was when we first spoke, on Monday, April 15, 2019.  
  ARTICLE:  Kate Brown & Susan Solomon: One thing nuclear power plants weren’t built to survive: War. 

Kate Brown

• Harvey Wasserman is a veteran author and activist noted for getting people getting involved on issues that matter.  He is holding an event this Sunday, March 27, in Santa Monica that has implications for all our work.  If you wish to attend, you can contact him for furtheer information at: [email protected].

Links: 

Combat at Ukraine Nuclear Plant Adds Radioactive Dangers to Russian Invasion
What Comes After Russia’s Attack on a Ukrainian Nuclear Power Station? 
Combat at Ukraine Nuclear Plant Adds Radioactive Dangers to Russian Invasion
What Comes After Russia’s Attack on a Ukrainian Nuclear Power Station? 
NIRS Joins Ukrainian Calls for Sanctions on Russian Nuclear Industry.   https://www.nirs.org/nirs-joins-ukrainian-calls-for-sanctions-on-russian-nuclear-industry/?fbclid=IwAR0fxyfG-IrgSPzJk79OLSDLZQGg0acsGmp1anj8GmJPSDrCyWHvWhHMTmk
Russia's energy clout doesn't just come from oil and gas – it's also a key nuclear supplier. https://www.econotimes.com/Russias-energy-clout-doesnt-just-come-from-oil-and-gas--its-also-a-key-nuclear-supplier-1629573
Pair of Earthquakes, Tsunami hit Fukushima Daiichi -  http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=20535&fbclid=IwAR2EH7RXqfI8sUd48Dip5L0rSj5JZ6CPkby8SS6reKxn9K0vYyN0KJbgIbo

" class="text-nh underline hover:text-nh-dark" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NIRS Joins Ukrainian Calls for Sanctions on Russian Nuclear Industry.  
Russia's energy clout doesn't just come from oil and gas – it's also a key nuclear supplier.
Pair of Earthquakes, Tsunami hit Fukushima Daiichi

Dr. Helen Caldicott video:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp2KBZe37l8&t=1s