Nuclear Hotseat

Cindy Folkers

Cindy Folkers is Radiation and Health Hazard Specialist at Beyond Nuclear, with close to 20 years experience.  She co-authored with Dr. Ian Fairlie the book, THE SCIENTISTS WHO ALERTED US TO THE DANGERS OF RADIATION.  Here, she breaks down what's wrong with the recent nuclear Executive Orders, including the mandate to "enable" the building of new, untried Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, and why even the current Linear No Threshold model for setting nuclear "safety" standards is not perfect, but it's much better than where we seem to be heading. 

LINK:  Dr. Gordon Edwards on uranium enrichment levels required to make nuclear bombs, and how the 11-20% enrichment of HALEU fuel required for small modular nuclear reactors can be turned into a bomb.  - Nuclear Hotseat #731. 

Trump will get his Russian yellowcake. If only he would eat it, too...

Milk and cookies time!  Here's another story of heroism in the fight against nuclear weapons with Jack Cohen-Joppa of The Nuclear Resister.  This week, focus on the protest events surrounding 1985's 40th anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

In New Hampshire, the Pease Air Force Base Monument (described in the Nuclear Resister report)  that honors the Air Force unit that dropped the bombs on Japan.   it was dismantled and removed when the base was shut down in 1988. 

United Nations report on the generational impact of nuclear radiation on women and children, written by Mary Olson of Generational Radiation Impact Project and Dr. Amanda M. Nichols. 

We all accept as proven scientific and medical fact that human exposure to ionizing radiation from nuclear weapons and their production is damaging to human health. But how do we know that? Who figures out how bad it can be? How much radiation we can be exposed to without risking our health? And how valid are those measurements?

We learn the alarming truth behind how those numbers were generated and what needs to be done instead from today’s guests, co-authors of the new report for the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm:

• Mary Olson holds a degree in Evolutionary Biology and has been an educator on radiation health impacts while serving nuclear-impacted communities… and so much more. Her website is RadiationProject.org
• Amanda M. Nichols, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Nichols research focuses on illuminating the role of women in the North American anti-nuclear movement.  Email contact: [email protected]

Gender and Ionizing Radiation: Towards a New Research Agenda Addressing Disproportionate Harm is cornerstone information in the movement to rid our planet of nukes. It is available for free downloa or pdf HERE.

Co-author Amanda Nichols holds up copy of the report

Further References mentioned in the interview and additional Resources:

• Nichols, Amanda M. Women on the Edge of Time: Grief and Power in the Nuclear Age. PhD Dissertation. University of Florida (2021). https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/UFE0057378/00001.
• Nichols, Amanda M. “Nuclear Energy,” in Chad Seales (ed.) The Handbook of Religion and American Culture. 2025.
• Nichols, Amanda M. “Uranium and Religion: Toward a Decolonial Temporality of Extraction,” Religions, 16(1). 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16010016.
• Olson, Mary. “Atomic Radiation Is More Harmful to Women,” Nuclear Information Resource Services, 2011. https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/radiation/radhealth/radiationwomen.pdf.
• Olson, Mary. “Disproportionate Impact of Radiation and Radiation Regulation,” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 44, no. 2 (2019): 131–39.https://doi.org/10.1080/03080188.2019.1603864. 
• Gender and Radiation Impact Project Website: https://www.genderandradiation.org/.

For BEIR VII Reports

• NAS-NRC. “Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR VII – Phase 2,” Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation, Board on Radiation Effects Research, National Research Council of the National Academies. National Academies Press, 2006. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=030909156X.
• NAS-NRC. “National Research Council – Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiations: Health Effects of Exposures to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR V.” National Academy Press, 1990. http:// www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309039959.

On International Radiological Protections and Reference Man

• ICRP. International Commission on Radiological Protection. 2002. Basic Anatomical and Physiological Data for Use in Radiological Protection Reference Values (2002). http://www.icrp.org/publication.asp?id=icrp%20publication%2089.
• ICRP. International Commission on Radiological Protection. Publication 103: The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (2007). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/ANIB_37_2-4. 
• ICRP. International Commission on Radiological Protection. Publication 147: Use of Dose Quantities in Radiological Protection. 50, no. 1 (2021): 9–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146645320911864.
• ICRP. International Commission on Radiological Protection. “Official Definition of Reference Man.” Report of the Task Group on Reference Man. [ICRP Publication] No. 23. Oxford: Pergamon Press (1975). Adopted October 1974. Page 4. https://ieer.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/definition-of-reference-man.pdf.

Nuclear is in hot water of its own making - and if spineless jellyfish can shut down a nuclear reactor, why can't we?

Ever notice now much jellyfish resemble the nuclear mushroom cloud...? 

ICAN Executive Director Melissa Parke in Hiroshima.  Photo: ICAN / Takeo Nakaoku

Melissa Parke, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, traveled to Japan for the 80th anniversary commemorations of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  She is a former Australian Minister for International Development and former Member of Parliament for the Australian Labor Party. As an MP, she regularly voiced support for nuclear disarmament, including as a member of a cross-party parliamentary group dedicated to the cause. She has been the head of ICAN for almost two years. 


We caught up with Melissa while she was in Nagasaki the day after the Hiroshima 80th anniversary ceremony.  Her tour of the far east included the Nagasaki commemoration on August 9 and then travel to South Korea to talk with Korean hibakusha - Korean citizens who were in Japan as forced labor when the bombs were exploded.  We discussed the ceremonies, the dilemma of the Korean hibakusha, why "deterrence" is a false hope that leaves the door open for disaster, and why the only way to end the nuclear threat is to abolish nuclear weapons. 

I spoke with Melissa Parke on August 7, 2025. 

• Deterrence article cited during interview
• Children's Peace Memorial
• Cranes of Memory

Linda Pentz Gunter returns following a sabbatical to complete her book, which will be published in March. For her first new Hot Story: The power of words and images serve as a lesson from Hiroshima.

Put a nuke on the moon or on the back of a trailer or in the middle of a busy airport - what could go wrong? (Steven Colbert has some ideas...)

https://youtu.be/kzFd_Vmgrws?si=0XjiJPlAjuntxl6f

And yes, Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's - when it comes to nuclear it IS a Small World After All!

"Remember Hiroshima" doll added to "It's a Small World" ride at Disneyland.  See video below. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/WroPl1szjrY?si=toqEzk0Vv88F5avK

• A global call to action - Trades unions and peace groups demand democracy that delivers peace and prosperity for all
• These nuclear reactors fit on a flatbed truck. How safe are they?
• Nuclear winter would bring mass starvation and death for years post-war, startling new study reveals: ‘We must be prepared’
• August 8, 2025 - No Nukes for Power, Posturing or Destruction
 by Karl Grossman

Prof. Yuki Miyamoto on Narrative Manipulation of Hiroshima, Nagasaki

On the anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a look at what this meant for further generations' health and psychology. Yuki Miyamoto is Nisei Hibakusha, second generation daughter of an atomic bomb survivor, and brings a personal perspective to her powerful work. She is a Professor in the department of Religious Studies and Director / Humanities Center at DePaul University in Chicago.

Since earning her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, she has been teaching nuclear ethics and environmental justice at DePaul. In addition to leading a biannual study abroad program bringing DePaul students to Hiroshima and Nagasaki for two weeks, her team project, TEAACH Nuclear History — is an initiative focused on teaching nuclear issues to inner-city middle school students.

We spoke on July 11, 2025.

• Monograph by Yuki Miyamoto:  Unbearable light/ness of the bombing: normalizing violence and banalizing the horror of the atomic bomb experience
• The very "graphic" graphic novel, Barefoot Gen in English. A harrowing story of Hiroshima that was one of the original Japanese manga series. This all-new translation of the author's first-person experiences of Hiroshima and its aftermath is a reminder of the suffering war brings to innocent people. Its emotions and experiences speak to children and adults everywhere. Volume one of a ten-part series.
• TEAACH nuclear history project homepage with the curriculum Prof. Miramoto has developed to teach about atomic Here's a LINK to the NH #589 interview on the curriculum: “Cool” Nuclear History Education for Kids – Prof. Yuki Miyamoto, Aiko Kojima Hibino
• ATOMIC DOCTOR: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age by James L. Nolan Jr.  He cared for the scientists on the Manhattan Project, organized safety and evacuation plans for the Trinity test at Alamogordo, escorted the “Little Boy” bomb from Los Alamos to the Pacific Islands, and was one of the first Americans to enter the irradiated ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

As referenced in our interview, this is the episode of the live TV program THIS IS YOUR LIFE, which aired in 1955. In it, Hiroshima survivor (Hibakusha) Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto is surprised - some might say blindsided -- by a forced meeting with Capt. Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This segment begins at 14:45.

https://youtu.be/9cdzg01Gp9Y?si=Y42OHY7xbFrSzCM8

Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto on This Is Your Life.  Segment with Capt. Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, starts at 14:45.

• The artist who was commissioned by the city of Hiroshima in 2008 and by the University of Chicago in 2017 for his pyrotechnic is Cai Guo-Qiang.  But are fireworks the appropriate way to commemorate nuclear milestones and atrocities? 

https://youtu.be/Ss5ooEQL8Mo?si=ewozLsrZft_g6gGA

University of Chicago commemoration of the first sustained chain reaction - 2017

https://youtu.be/wBsa6YSUFU0?si=zMWsAppw5SscQITm

Not even close.  "Representation" of atomic bombing of Hiroshima - 2008. 

The ICAN UPDATE is a monthly feature from the International Campaign on the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons on progress being made on the passage of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or TPNW. But this month is a little different, because ICAN is in Japan and participating in the commemoration ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Here with his report from Japan is our regular correspondent, ICAN’s head of media, Alistair Burnett.

• The International Uranium Film Festival is hosting a free worldwide online screening of three films to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The screenings will be available through THIS LINK August 6-15, 2025.
  
  The Films are:
  
  • Atomic Cover-Up by Greg Mitchell
  • Nagasaki Journey by Chris Beaver and Judy Irving
  • Quote the Raven, Nevermore by Ari Besser and Regis Hirwa
    
• HIROSHIMA - Lino cut 18x24 by Sam Kerson from the artist's book, Hiroshima to Fukushima, produced by Dragon Dance Theatre

HIROSHIMA by Sam Kerson

A South Korean man holds a placard in front of a building housing the Japanese embassy in Seoul on August 24, 2023, as South Korean protesters gather to demonstrate against Japan's discharge of treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

• Tim Deere-Jones is marine biologist, marine radioactivity researcher and consultant, and a regular commentator on Nuclear Hotseat. Here, clarifies how a recent report out of Japan touting the so-called "safety" of tritium levels in radioactive water released from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean is false, really just another example of nuclear propaganda.

Palisades Nuclear on Lake Michigan - only 74 miles from Chicago

• Arnie Gundersen is a nuclear engineer, whistleblower, and green energy advocate who has been a consulting expert on many nuclear reactor issues, including the shut down of the San Onofre nuclear facility in southern California.  Here, he explains the problems with the planned restart of the shuttered Palisades nuclear reactor in southern Michigan, on the shores of Lake Michigan. 

• It is with deep sadness that we report on the passing of Daniel Hirsch.  He was founder and president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, and a tireless opponent of the nuclear industry.  His lectures to students at UCLA led to them uncovering the 20-year cover-up of the nuclear accident at the Santa Susana Field Lab in Los Angeles.  He was a tireless, articulate, and accessible source of information on nuclear and we deeply mourn his loss. 
  
• Nuclear Hotseat #47 - 2012 interview with Dan Hirsch on Hidden LA Nuke Accident – Santa Susana Field Labs, 1959 - how the truth was uncovered after 20 years of cover-up.
  
• Tom Lehrer - https://youtu.be/rkbkXbtQrNs?si=oA-fOMmVlv7N65O

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yJDX-YD5dB4?si=PYdfhx6KOq5ebFoI

https://youtu.be/rkbkXbtQrNs?si=oA-fOMmVlv7N65O-