Nuclear Hotseat

Smug Stupid Los Alamos: A guide to the atomic hot spots - meaning REALLY hot - around the radioactive Manhattan Project legacy sites with Joni Arends of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Pictured above:  How much more smug can it get than boasting about atomic bombs and making radiation "jokes" on tee shirts for small children and even a onesie for an infant? 

This Week's Featured Interview:

• Smug Stupid Los Alamos - its history and current problems - is the subject of this week's show.  Joni Arends is one of the founders of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and a 32 year veteran of that group.  She provided the guided tour of public lands around the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), one of the original Manhattan Project sites.  This is where, during World War II, the United States military kicked local farmers, ranchers and a children's school off their ancestral land in order to build the first atomic bomb in isolation and secrecy.  Joni's Toxic Tour (as it has come to be known) took us to bluffs overlooking  Manhattan Project-era laboratories, nuclear weapons facilities, radioactive waste dump sites, and the Rio Grande river, which has been and continues to be impacted by the migration of LANL radioactive, hazardous and toxic contaminants through surface and ground water pathways. 
  
  Additional information on the tour was provided by Leona Morgan, Diné, who helped to found the Nuclear Issues Study Group of Albuquerque, and Ian Zabarte, Head Man of the Western Shoshone Nation. 

Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy on the Los Alamos Toxic Tour - double masked ("paper and plastic") for radiation safety.  Would that I had a respirator.  (You can't see the plastic bags covering my shoes...)

Statue in Los Alamos commemorating the apparatus that holds the plutonium pits as they move from station to station through the gloveboxes at LANL.

Robert Oppenheimer, the "Father of the Atomic Bomb," as a bobble head. 
Obviously his ubiquitous pipe is sold separately.

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

So much nuclear numnutzery, so little time... The European Union including nuclear in its "green" energy planning, or Japan wanting to use radioactive decontamination soil from Fukushima in parks?!  Maybe... both? 

Nuclear Waste Warriors from around the United States gathered in
Albuquerque, NM in November to brainstorm, strategize, and coordinate efforts and actions.  

This Week's SPECIAL:

Nuclear Waste Warriors from around the U.S. came together November 7-11, 2019, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to brainstorm, strategize, and coordinate work against the nuclear nightmares in their own backyards, as well as national issues.  More than 100 individuals shared the most successful and most challenging aspects of their work, trading actions and talking points, networking and bonding, and working to create a unified force against this never-ending nuclear menace. 

Among those heard on the show:

• Dave Kraft of Nuclear Energy Information Service in Chicago
• Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Specialist at Beyond Nuclear
• Mary Olson, retiring veteran staff member of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, and Acting Director of Gender and Radiation Impact Project
• Holly Harris, Snake River Alliance (Idaho)
• John LaForge, Nukewatch (Wisconsin)
• Molly Johnson, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (California)
• Dr. Scott Williams, HEAL Utah (Utah)
• Mervyn Tilden, Navajo Nation
• Petush Gilbert, Laguna/Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment (Navajo Nation)
• Wally Taylor, attorney (Iowa)
• Eileen O'Shaugnessy, Nuclear Issues Study Group (New Mexico)
• Steve Kent (New York, Indian Point)
• Pat Marida, Sierra Club (Ohio)
• Pat Townsend (Northwest New York state)
• …and many more! 

A report on the van trip we took through Los Alamos National Laboratory-adjacent lands and the town of Los Alamos will be in next week's show, Nuclear Hotseat #443.  This Toxic Atomic Road Trip was guided by Joni Arends of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and Leona Morgan of Nuclear Issues Study Group, with pertinent additions by Ian Zabarte, Director of the Nuclear Oversight Project of the Western Shoshone Nation.  

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

You want to know why we need action on waste management?  Ask Los Alamos National Laboratory, which LOST 250 BARRELS OF RADIOACTIVE NUCLEAR WASTE! 

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Nuclear Hotseat is undergoing a website upgrade and redesign.  The goal is to make this site more searchable, aesthetically pleasing, and secure.  It's also an opportunity to bring it more in line with current platforms,  specifically smartphones and tablet devices.  This website change is far above our monthly operating costs, so if you could, please donate to help support this transition.  Thanks for any help you can provide.  - Libbe.