Nuclear Hotseat

Indian Points Shutdown!  But the battle for safety has just shifted to another gear. 

Indian Point Shutdown!  The closure of Indian Point's last operating nuclear reactor - only 25 miles from Manhattan - is a cause for celebration... and a recalibration of the activist response to focus on decommissioning challenges.  Two genuine experts paint the decommissioning picture:

• 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 25 miles from Manhattan.  We spoke on the day of the shutdown - Friday, April 30, 2021.
• Dr. Gordon Edwards is the head of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.LINKS from Dr. Edwards to further information on Decommissioning and Relevant Issues:
  
  • “The Radioactive Outhouse”A Concrete Approach to Nuclear Waste?  www.ccnr.org/CCNR_NDP_pack.pdf
  • Comments on Draft Environmental Impact Statement: In Situ Decommissioning of the WR-1 Reactor  www.ccnr.org/CCNR_WR1_2017.pdf
  • “Radioactive Waste Got You Down?A Little Grout and Grief is Gone.”  www.ccnr.org/CCNR_WR1_Supp_2018.pdf
  • “Dismantling Nuclear Structures Provides Jobs and Business Opportunities”  www.ccnr.org/memoir_CCNR_2013.pdf

If you want a vacation to a "hot spot," couldn't you just make it to the beach instead of Chernobyl? 

Screen shot from a report on The Weather Channel

• Dr. Ian Fairlie on Chernobyl
• Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano's Counterpunch article on Indian Point Closure

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Chernobyl Anniversary: The "Elephant's Foot" - final resting place of the molten, radioactive Chernobyl fuel.

Chernobyl Anniversary 35 deserves more than a single program examining its consequences.  Check last week's Nuclear Hotseat #513 for further interviews.  This week:

• 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 experience.
• The late Dr. Janette Sherman edited the the English translation of the groundbreaking work, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment by Alexei Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko. Dr. Sherman was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Nuclear Hotseat, and we spoke about this book and how it came about for NH #97 on April 23, 2013. She passed away on November 20, 2019.LINK:  CLICK HERE for a free PDF of Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment 
• False Alarm investigates the diverse reactions to the 2018 Hawai'i false missile alert, forcing families, soldiers, tourists, and every person in Hawai'i to confront an unthinkable reality—an incoming nuclear missile.  Award-winning director Nick Lyell explains how the film came about and the upcoming screening for Beyond the Bomb.  He has directed, produced, and edited several award-winning fiction and non-fiction short films.FREE WORLD-PREMIERE SCREENING FOR BEYOND THE BOMB:
  Friday, May 7, 8 PM Eastern, 5 PM Pacific time - CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS.  Donation requested.

Another TEPCO/Japanese government/Dentsu PR fail:  You can't convince the world that dumping 1.25 million tons of Fukushima's radioactively contaminated water (more than 1,000 tanks worth) into the Pacific Ocean is really A-OK by throwing a cartoon mascot at them!

Tritty and his Radioative Tritium Atom Buddies! 

• Esteemed activist/journalist Harvey Wasserman's article:  80 Ways Nuke Power Is a Catastrophic Failure
• Is the US nuclear community prepared for the extreme weather climate change is bringing? - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Chernobyl at 35: Ongoing Radiation Leaks, Insect and Animal Mutations,
The Never-Ending Dangers of the 1986 Nuclear Disaster

• Kate Brown is the author of Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future. She is an historian of environmental and nuclear history at MIT and the author of Plutopia, which won seven major awards. Her research has been funded by the American Academy in Berlin and by Carnegie and Guggenheim fellowships. In this season of Chernobyl commemorations, she made time in her daunting schedule to talk with us about what’s in her new book.  We spoke on Monday, April 15, 2019.

Kate Brown’s stunning book on Chernobyl.  CLICK on image to link to Amazon
or purchase at your local independent bookseller. 

• Professor Timothy Mousseau is an evolutionary biologist and faculty member of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina since 1991. Beginning in 1999, Professor Mousseau and his collaborators have explored the ecological, genetic and evolutionary consequences of low-dose radiation in populations of plants, animals and people inhabiting the Chernobyl region of Ukraine and Belarus. More recently, he initiated a second research program in Fukushima, Japan.  This is an excerpt from a much longer interview conducted on February 16, 2016, which will be shared on an upcoming Nuclear Hotseat.
• Ian Zabarte  is Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians.  His work covers Yucca Mountain, Treaty law and tribal rights, Native Community Action Council and the healing center Pooha-Ba, meaning Power Water.

April 26-31, 2021. This 5-night event focuses on the impacts that nuclear issues have on Native American communities across the country.
Register for complementary tickets HERE.
Speakers include: Winona LaDuke, Tom Goldtooth, Carletta Tilousi, Kandi White, Myron Dewey, Tommy Rock, Manny Pino, Joe Kennedy, and Ian Zabarte.
Featured artists include Jack Malotte, Sorren Thunder Richards, and Bryan Hudson

April 22 and April 23, 2021, 9 a.m. DST - fostering discussion and advance action on the unique set of opportunities or Tribal Nations in the rapidly expanding renewable energy economy.
Register HERE.

Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians
being interviewed by Nuclear Hotseat's Libbe HaLevy 

LA's Deadly Nuclear Nightmare: Santa Susana Field Labs
New documentary tells story of how Melissa Bumstead (above with daughter Grace Bumstead) came to spearhead the drive to clean up the radioactive, toxic site
located just 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

• LA's Deadly Nuclear Nightmare - Simi Valley mother Melissa Bumstead only found out about the toxic, radioactively contaminated Santa Susan Field Lab - located less than three miles from her home - while her daughter was being treated for neuroblastoma - a rare cancer.  Her story, the history of the site, the litany of official lies that has tried to cover it up, and the decades of fightback to force a full clean-up is the subject of a new documentary, In the Dark of the Valley.  We interviewed Melissa and the film's producer, Derek Smith on April 9, 2021.

• To get tickets to In the Dark of the Valley (good until April 20, 2021, at the Cleveland Film Festival.  INTERNATIONAL LISTENERS, PLEASE NOTE:  Only US access from the streaming platform.  When an International link becomes available, we'll let you know.)
  
• Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL)  Includes ways to get involved, an events calendar, updates, research links, and more.
• PETITION FOR THE COMPREHENSIVE CLEANUP OF THE SSFL  Join more than 730,000 people who have already signed!
  
• Denise Duffield,  Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles
• Dan Hirsch, Committee to Bridge the Gap

LA’s Deadly Nuclear Nightmare - Melssa Bumstead testifying before
CA State Water Board, illustrating her daughter's cancer treatments.
Each bead in the yards-long "necklace" equals one medical treatment.

Gigayacht floating science lab!  All Green Technology!  Except... you guessed it...