Nuclear Hotseat

Woolsey Fire in 2018 has now been shown, through peer-reviewed scientific study, to have released radioactive microparticles from the Santa Susana Field Lab site into Los Angeles neighborhoods.  Radioactivity released through smoke and ash has been shown to have reached as much as nine miles away and 19 times background radiation.

Woolsey Fire radioactive releases revealed:  In 2018, the massive Woolsey Fire started at the Santa Susana Field Lab - a nuclear radiation- and rocket fuel-contaminated former Rocketdyne site, located in the hills of Simi Valley only 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles.  It burned through contaminated brush and debris, releasing smoke and ash suspected of containing radiation into the environment.  The California Department of Toxic Substances (DTSC) hastily issued reassurances only nine hours after the fire started and as it still burned, "assuring" the public that no radioactive materials had been released by the fire and nothing above normal background levels was found. Local citizens were not convinced and took action to get the area tested.

Now, three years later, a just-released peer-reviewed scientific study of dirt, dust and ash samples taken within a 10 mile radius of the Woolsey fire has revealed a very different picture of what happened.  The study - Radioactive microparticles related to the Woolsey Fire in Simi Valley, CA, published by the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity - was based on 360 samples of ash, dirt and dust taken in the immediate aftermath of the fire.  Research and testing was conducted by the three individuals we interviewed for today's show:

• Dr. Marco Kaltofen of Worcester Polytechnic Institute is an environmental scientist with 30 years experience in environmental, workplace, and product safety investigations. Dr. Kaltofen's nuclear forensics work includes experience in the US, the Middle East, Russia, India, Japan, and European Union countries.
• Arnie Gundersen, nuclear engineer, licensed nuclear reactor operator, and expert witness, as well as the chief engineer for Fairewinds Associates
• Maggie Gundersen is a journalist, paralegal, and former atomic power industry spokesperson who serves as president of Fairewinds Energy Education, as well as a member of their Board of Directors.

• The  Journal of Environmental Radioactivity article: Radioactive microparticles related to the Woolsey Fire in Simi Valley, CA
• Fairewinds Energy Education
• Parents Against the Santa Susana Field Lab

(Clockwise from lower right): Dr. Marco Kaltofen, Maggie Gundersen, Arnie Gundersen, Libbe HaLevy

Baby teeth collected both in the 1950's and 60's, compared to baby teeth collected now from area around Dresden nuclear reactors in Illinois and Fermi reactor in Michigan may reveal radiation exposure from nuclear reactor emissions as a cause of spikes in cancer rates.  Radiation and Public Health Project's Joseph Mangano explains background, history, and current actions.

• Baby teeth were studied in the 1950's and 60's to determine childhood exposure to radioactive strontium 90 from atmospheric nuclear bomb tests.  The results from what was called the Tooth Fairy Project led to U.S. President Kennedy and Russia's Premier Khrushchev creating the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, known as the Atmospheric Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. 
• Now, a cache of more than 100,000 teeth not used in that initial study has just recently been discovered.  These teeth will be compared with baby teeth from communities in Illinois and Michigan near nuclear reactors.  The more recent teeth are being collected now by epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, the Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) to determine through data analysis if radiation releases from nuclear reactors pose health problem.
• Mangano is a health researcher who has served RPHP since 1989.  He is author or co-author of 33 medical journal articles on radiation health, and is the author of the books Low Level Radiation and Immune System Damage: An Atomic Era Legacy (1998) and Radioactive Baby Teeth: The Cancer Link (2008). He managed the study of Strontium-90 in baby teeth, and now manages the citizen-based radiation monitoring programs near the Indian Point NY and Oyster Creek NJ nuclear plants.
• If you live near the Dresden nuclear reactor in Illinois or the Fermi nuclear reactor in Monroe County, Michigan, and you have even a single baby tooth from one of your children, RPHP needs your help.If you're interested in helping, CLICK HERE to access a link to a downloadable PDF of the simple submission form.  It explains what to do and where to send the tooth.If you have further questions, contact Joe Mangano at [email protected]

Joseph Mangano of Radiation and Public Health Project (l) sharing a moment of levity with Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy.

• Sister Megan Rice passed away on October 10 at the age of 91.  She is best known to Nuclear Hotseat listeners for having broken in to the U.S. Y-12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee - a so-called high security site known as "Fort Knox of Nuclear" - as part of a 2015 peaceful Plowshares demonstration against nuclear weapons.  She was convicted of sabotage – a conviction that was overturned after she’d already served two years in prison.
• I interviewed Sister Rice right after she got out of prison.  Here's the link to that episode: Anti-Nuclear Peace Nun Sister Megan Rice of Plowshares

Sister Megan Rice

Japanese government ministers keep insisting that they're going to release radioactive tritium-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi triple nuclear meltdown into the "sea" (meaning Pacific Ocean)... as though that's a good thing!  Short sighted, tone deaf, brain dead...

(coming soon...)

SSFL film - https://nuclearhotseat.com/2021/04/14/las-deadly-nuclear-nightmare-santa-susana-field-lab-documentary/

Oconee Nuclear reactors - all three of them - will be in the water pathway if there is a breach at the Jocassee Dam, only 12 miles away.  That would be the equivalent of
SIX Mississippi Rivers in a wall of water 19 feet high.  Can you say... "Fukushima?"

• Oconee Nuclear reactors at risk of inland tsunami from Jocassee Dam - Paul Gunter has been a critic of nuclear power for over 30 years. He is an energy policy analyst and activist who worked as the Director of the Reactor Watchdog Project for Nuclear Information and Resource Service for almost 20 years. In 2007, he joined Beyond Nuclear as their Nuclear Reactor Specialist, and that’s where he’s been ever since. We spoke on Monday, October 4, 2021.

Paul Gunter.  Photo by Ioanna Raptis/ Seacoastonline

• Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA):  LINK to Nuclear Hotseat #526 SPECIAL on RECA.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't understand that "a little bit radioactive" is like "a little bit pregnant" and completely removes the ban on import of Japan's Fukushima-area food.  Yet another reason to read labels.

• Radiolab - Nukes and Nuclear Chain of Command
• Women Transforming  Our Nuclear Legacy - Journalism, Media & Our Nuclear Legacy - webinar, October 13, 2021.  Must sign up.
• Woodward/Costa book PERIL - Why No President Should Have "sol Authority" to start a nuclear war.
• How Nuclear Power Causes Global Warming - Harvey Wasserman
• The Record-Breaking Failures of Nuclear Power - Linda Gunter
• The Overlooked American Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Radioactive Nuclear Waste Dump Dangers – Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear runs down what’s wrong with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granting a license
for an “interim” (really forever) new nuclear waste dump in West Texas.
The dangers extend far beyond the site itself.   

• Radioactive nuclear waste dump dangers are the primary wheelhouse of Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog (bullldog?) for Beyond Nuclear.  Kevin specializes in high-level waste management and transportation; new and existing reactors; decommissioning; environmental and public health risks associated with government and industry efforts to dump commercial irradiated fuel rods on Native American lands in the western United States. We spoke on Thursday, September 23, 2021.
• LINKS mentioned in the episode:
  
  • New Beyond Nuclear fact sheets opposing Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities
    Eight fact sheets intended for members of Congress and their staff members as well as other officials at all levels of government -- federal, state, county, local, and Indigenous.
• Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website sub-section:
  Links to a timeline of articles dealing with West Texas nuclear waste storage parking lot, uhr, radioactive waste storage facility.

Nuclear Waste Watchdog (bulldog?) Kevin Kamps

• Dr. Caitlin Stronell is editor of Nuke Info Tokyo, a publication that's been around for nearly 35 years (though I just learned about it last week!). This service of Citizens' Nuclear Information Center provides data, media outreach, expert testimony. and nuclear truth in a country that really would rather not know.
• LINKS mentioned during the interview:
  
  • Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (bi-lingual, Japanese and English)
  • Crowdfunding link English page

Dr. Caitlin Stronell and a mock-up of the most recent Nuke Info Tokyo

Highly radioactive area found in Fukushima:

https://youtu.be/Zf39PVW8itE

Cold War Horse:  Named as one of the offbeat "tourist attractions" in Colorado.  It is the only marker at the still-radioactive Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production facility - now rebranded as a "wildlife preserve."

https://youtu.be/lPPko6BHNLY

Radioactive Waste Dump Connection between Yucca Mt. (pictured above) and its the NRC-approved West Texas so-called "interim" waste site
exposed and lambasted by Western Shoshone Principal Man Ian Zabarte.

• Radioactive waste dump connection between Yucca Mountain and West Texas explored and exposed by Ian Zabarte, Principal Man for the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation.  He rips apart the recent decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve a high level "interim" nuclear waste dump in West Texas and brings to the fore a range of Native American issues long-overlooked by the NRC and the nuclear industry in connection with this nuclear sacrilege.
  You can CONTACT Ian at: www.NativeCommunityActionCouncil.org.
• Dave Kraft of Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) gives us the latest unfortunate update in the ongoing saga of taxpayer-funded bailouts of unprofitable for-profit Exelon nuclear reactors in Illinois.  Then he lets us know what's being planned for the nuclear honey-pot of Congress in the proposed Build Back Better Act. It's not a pretty picture!
  

Video featuring Greg Jaczko, former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is referenced in the interview with Dave Kraft:

https://youtu.be/7HJ_mBP5y1o

The United Nations' COP 26 conference on the climate crisis has for the first time banned nuclear groups from presenting their propaganda.  No, that's not the "numnutzery" - it's the nuclear industry crying in its beer over not being allowed to crash the party! 

• In the Dark of the Valley - link to get tickets for the online showing of this award-winning film about the mothers fighting to clean up the Santa Susana Field Lab site only 30 miles from Downtown Los Angeles.
• New Nuclear: What's At Stake for Wildlife? - webinar on October 7, 2-3:30 pm Eastern Time.  To register, CLICK ON TITLE.

A personal note to everyone that the new website for Nuclear Hotseat now has the wireframe (structure) secured.  Next step: fill in the blanks with tons of great new information, easier searchability, new features, and the world-class look that we deserve to match the quality of information.  It's a lot of work and we're still raising funds to pay for the second half of the fee in order to be able to launch it.  Approximately 6-8 weeks to completion, but well worth the wait!

For those of you who have contributed to this massive step - thank you!  And for those of you who want to help us cross the finish line - please do!  Just Click Here or on the Big Red Donate Button to provide a donation of any size.  I'll post pictures in the coming weeks of what's going it's going to look like.  An exciting important step for this 10-years-and-counting weekly podcast/broadcast on nuclear issues!  Stay tuned! -- Libbe.