Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Nuclear Hotseat #123: Nuclear Halloween Fright House!





SPECIAL FEATURE:  NUCLEAR FRIGHT HOUSE!
 BWA-HA-HA-HA-! 
What’s spookier than Nuclear?  Hear what almost two dozen activists from both caosts name as their worst nightmares about nuclear.  Then, Donna Gilmore of SanOnofreSafety.org, Dr. Arjun Makhijani, Dr. Marvin Renikoff and Dr. Don Mosher share the scariest information of all about nuclear waste at San Onofre as a preview of what the human race faces everywhere there’s been a nuclear reactor.  You’d think somebody would have told that industry to take out its garbage…

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:

  • World Nuclear Fuel Cycle 2014 is a pro-nuclear international forum for the discussion of issues affecting the commercial nuclear fuel cycle — not one word about Fukushima!  (of course…)  When is it taking place?  Less than one month after Fukushima’s 3rd anniversary, two weeks after Three Mile Island’s 35th anniversary, two weeks before Chernobyl’s 27th anniversary and just in time for the Pacific Ocean radiation plume to hit the host city, San Francisco.  Can you say, “Demonstrations?”  

PLUS:

  • 7.3 Quake damage at Fukushima suspected;
  • TEPCO resorts to slave labor to get workers into the danger zone;
  • Content of Caldicott/Gundersen/Yablokov (+ 14 other experts) letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon – it’s been delivered, but response not yet given;

  • Pacific Ocean rad-plume predicted to hit west coast of North America in 2014;
  • and for those who can’t wrap their heads around the ongoing damage to human health from Fukushima radiation, how about them dead horses? 


LISTEN > Nuclear Hotseat #123: Nuclear Halloween Fright House! | Nuclear Hotseat


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

11.30 & 12.1 SANTA FE, NM: Highlights from the Uranium Film Festival | Sierra Club | Northern New Mexico Group



Highlights from the Uranium Film Festival - SF - Nov. 30 & Dec. 1

uraniumusaplakat.jpg
WHERE: Center for Contemporary Arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM
WHEN: Saturday, November 30 time TBD Atomic Surplus: Highlights from the Uranium Film Festival
Presented by Santa Fe Art Institute
Held each year in Rio de Janeiro, this festival explores nuclear power, uranium mining, nuclear weapons and the health effects of radioactivity, while seeking to educate and activate the public. Founder-directors Norbert G. Suchanek and Marcia Gomes de Oliveira will present a selection of films and lead a discussion.
Sunday, December 1, time TBD Atomic Surplus: Nuclear Savage
"Stunning … An extraordinary documentary" –Huffington Post
Some use the term "savage" to refer to people from primitive cultures, but nuclear experimentation pushed savagery to new levels. In the 1950s, the U.S. conducted 67 atomic and hydrogen bomb tests in the Marshall Islands, vaporizing islands and exposing entire populations to fallout. The islanders on Rongelap received near fatal doses of radiation from one test, and were then moved onto a highly contaminated island to serve as human guinea pigs for 30 years, in an experiment conceived at Los Alamos. Santa Fe's Adam Horowitz, known locally as the builder of 'Fridgehenge,' spent 25 years collecting material—his own footage, archival clips, and unpublished secret documents—to create this unforgettable and ironic portrait of American cynicism, arrogance, and racism. Winner of festival awards in Paris, Chicago and Mexico City.
Event Date & Time: 
30 November 2013 - 5:00pm - 1 December 2013 - 10:00pm


link deleted / bad link ???

▶ 40 good years and one bad day - Arnie Gunderson, Akio Matsumura | Fairewinds Energy Education



▶ 40 good years and one bad day - YouTube

Published on Jul 23, 2013
In this video, Arnie Gundersen talks with international diplomat Akio Matsumura, the former special advisor to the United Nations Development program, the founder and Secretary General of the Global Forum of spiritual and parliamentary leaders for human survival, and the Secretary General of the 1992 Parliamentary Earth Summit Conference in Rio de Janeiro. Arnie and Akio discuss the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi site, and come to the conclusion that Tokyo Electric must be removed from the clean-up process. Arnie also discusses his 40 years in the nuclear industry, and how the worst day of that career led him to conclude that a nuclear power plant can have "Forty Good Years and One Bad Day."




Robert Stone Must Now Film Fukushima | EcoWatch


Harvey Wasserman | October 29, 2013


We are in desperate need of documentary filmmakers at Fukushima. The Japanese government is about to pass a national censorship law  clearly meant to make it impossible to know what’s going on there. 

Massive  quantities of radioactive water  have been flowing through the site since the March, 2011 earthquake/tsunami. A thousand flimsy tanks still hold thousands of tons more of radioactive water which would pour into the Pacific should they collapse.


An earthquake and two typhoons have have just hit there, flushing still more radioactive water into the sea.


The corrupt and incompetent Tokyo Electric Power Company will soon try moving 400 tons of supremely radioactive rods from a damaged Unit Four fuel pool, an operation that could easily end in global catastrophe. The rods contain  14,000 times as much radioactive cesium  as was released at the bombing of Hiroshima. Nobody knows the exact location of the melted cores from Units One, Two and Three or whether they are still fissioning.

Reuters and others report criminal involvement, slashed wages, inhuman working conditions, serious shortages and lack of training in what has become an extremely dangerous labor crisis.

Intensely radioactive hotspots have turned up throughout Japan, including some that threaten human life in Tokyo and may cast a pall on the  upcoming Olympics.

At least one report indicates a massive dead zone in the Pacific apparently caused by radiation pouring in from the site. Tuna contaminated with radiation from Fukushima have been caught off the California coast, and there are widespread reports other marine life disappearing throughout the Pacific. 

With the information flow from Fukushima apparently about to go dark, the presence of independent media and researchers has become more critical than ever.

Petitions  with more than 140,000 signatures asking for a global takeover of the Fukushima site will be delivered to the United Nations Nov. 7. They ask is for a  transnational team of world’s best scientists and engineers  to guarantee that all necessary resources are available to deal with this crisis. 

Robert Stone has made a high budget dis-infomercial sponsored by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, whose cohort Bill Gates has bet heavily on new nukes. Called Pandora’s Promise, Stone’s promoters have refused to send us a review copy. We’re told it mocks industry opponents without actually interviewing them, while downplaying the killing power of atomic radiation. It’s scheduled to air on CNN without a balancing point of view. 

A trip to Fukushima might change Stone’s mind. He’s worked in the past with Michael Moore, one of our greatest investigative documentarians. Using Michael’s aggressive techniques, we want him to bring back critical information that could make a difference.

At the very least we desperately need to know more about the 11,000 intensely radioactive fuel rods on site, the three missing reactor cores, the proposed bring-down of the Unit Four fuel rods, the potential for still more explosions, the labor crisis, the unending flow of potentially lethal radiation into the biosphere and much more.

The fate of the Earth may now hang at the mercy of a widely distrusted corporation and far-right government intent on blacking out that site.

Dr. James Hansen, an important climate scientist, has expressed his support for atomic energy, and would make a fitting co-worker on this trip.

Along the way, Mr. Stone, you might check out  Japan’s massive new offshore wind turbines whose promise is to replace all the reactors this disaster has forced shut. 

But as a hired industry gun, above all you need to tell us what’s happening at Fukushima…before the lights go out. Our future could very well depend on how honestly you undertake this critical task. Please report back as soon as possible.


Petitions asking for a global takeover of the Fukushima site will be delivered to the UN, asking for a transnational team of world’s best scientists and engineers to guarantee that all necessary resources are available to deal with this crisis.


CRISIS AT FUKUSHIMA #4 DEMANDS A GLOBAL TAKEOVER: PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION!!

sign now 




another petition:

Fukushima: A Global Solution to a Global Threat - PetitionBuzz



World Action Now on Fukushima - Harvey Wasserman




World Action Now on Fukushima - Harvey Wasserman - YouTube

Published on Oct 4, 2013
Journalist, author, activist and historian Harvey Wasserman has been reporting on, and participating in, the nuclear free movement for decades. In that time, by his judgment, only one other event matches the danger to the world posed by the Cuban Missile Crisis. That event is the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

Haven't heard about it in the corporate media? That's because the deadly and dying global nuclear industry and its allies don't want you to know.

That's why he has organized a petition drive to the UN advocating international expert oversight of, and participation in, management of the Fukushima crisis.

In this interview, he explains why we must all be involved in this world-historical challenge to human and planetary survival. Sign the petition here:



Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox: Don't Shoot the Messenger (Soapbox Podcast October 27, 2013 with Harvey Wasserman re #Fukushima)


The Absolute Urgency of Fukushima


Don't Shoot the Messenger

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox
October 27, 2013

"I don't want to hear the bad news about Fukushima, either, but it's there."

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox believes that the containment of
the multiple meltdowns and dangling spent fuel rods are the
most urgent problems facing humanity today.


GUEST: HARVEY WASSERMAN

TOPIC: Absolute Urgency of Fukushima

LINK TO PETITION FOR GLOBAL TAKEOVER OF THE CONTAINMENT OF FUKUSHIMA 




 CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW



Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox: Don't Shoot the Messenger (Soapbox Podcast October 27, 2013)



Monday, October 28, 2013

11.3 FREMANTLE WA: Renegade film night Outdoor summer screening - Chain Reaction -- Australian Adventure, Poison Dust, The Toxic Avenger





11.3 FREMANTLE Western Australia:
Renegade film night - Outdoor summer screening
https://www.facebook.com/events/169749853226918/

Fremantle, Queen St car park, cnr Cantonement st


Come with a pick nick and rugs to enjoy outdoor film screening in Fremantle including:

• Chain Reaction -- Australian Adventure
Director: Ian BarryCast includes: Steve Bisley, Arna-Maria Winchester, Ross Thompson, Ralph Cotterill
Synopsis: A thriller about the aftermath of a nuclear plant accident that contaminates a worker and a two civilians, who then take on the industry. (Check out the cameo appearance by Mel Gibson as a car mechanic.)

• Poison Dust
Documentary about U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who had been exposed to radioactive dust from dirty bombs when artillery shells coated with depleted uranium or DU are fired. Many suffer mysterious illnesses and have children with birth defects.

The Toxic Avenger - American action comedy cult classic


Renegade film night - Outdoor summer screening (facebook)


Thursday, October 24, 2013

10.29-11.1 MONROE, MI: Interventions against proposed Fermi 3 atomic reactor in Michigan to be heard at Halloween-time




At Halloween-time, an environmental coalition, represented by Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge, will finally get its day in court, after more than five years of resisting Detroit Edison's (DTE) proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor targeted at the Lake Erie shoreline of Monroe County, Michigan.
However, few, if any, nuclear license applications have ever been rejected by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), or the agency's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) over the past several decades.
Monroe has already "hosted" Fermi 1 (an experimental plutonium breeder reactor, permanently shutdown in 1972, but still undergoing decommissioning, which had a partial core meltdown on Oct. 5, 1966, as documented in John G. Fuller's classic bookWe Almost Lost Detroit). Monroe still "hosts" Fermi 2, at 1,122 Megawatts-electric (MW-e), the single-biggest General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor (GE BWR Mark I) in the world, almost as big as the identically-designed, exploded, and melted down Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 and 2 put together.
DTE submitted its combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) for Fermi 3 in September 2008. The nuclear utility had raced to file its COLA, in order to be among the first in line for billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies for proposed new reactors enacted by George W. Bush in 2005.
But the ESBWR (General Electric-Hitachi so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor") design was so half-baked, NRC couldn't help but respond during the ESBWR design certification review with an astonishing several thousand Requests for Additional Information (RAIs). Not surprisingly, the dubious ESBWR design has been abandoned by several other U.S. nuclear utilities. But DTE is stubborn.
The environmental coalition, which includes Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), Citizen Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), Don't Waste Michigan, and Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, filed intervention contentions and petitioned for hearings by NRC's arbitrarily short deadline on March 9, 2009.
Of some 30 contentions filed by the coalition, four have survived five years of NRC staff and DTE legal attacks. However, the environmental resistance has caused three and half years of delays in DTE's original Fermi 3 schedule.
One of the surviving contentions, regarding the NRC's court-ordered environmental impact statement (EIS) on the agency's high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) "confidence," has officially delayed finalization of NRC's rubberstamp of DTE's Fermi 3 COLA by at least two years, the time it will take to finalize the EIS.
Another contention demands that NRC include an assessment for 29 miles of transmission line corridor construction that would be needed to connect Fermi 3 to the electrical grid. Some of that construction would be through fragile forested wetlands, habitat for threatened and even endangered species, including the Eastern Fox Snake. This contention is being held in abeyance until the NRC Commission rules on the matter.
The other two remaining contentions are the subject matter to be litigated during the upcoming Halloween-time NRC ASLB hearings to be held in Monroe.
The first concerns the threatened Eastern Fox Snake species, an indigenous constrictor. A large area of the endangered habitat of the Eastern Fox Snake -- coastal Great Lakes wetlands -- would be destroyed by the construction and operation of Fermi 3. In fact, the State has admitted that Fermi 3 would involve the largest impact on Great Lakes coastal wetlands in the history of applicable state environmental protection laws.
The second contention regards the largely to entirely non-existent quality assurance (QA) on the entire Fermi 3 COLA. The environmental coalition is represented on this QA contention by Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Associates, Inc.
This QA contention interacts with the vital subject: Fermi 3's soil structures analysis. Under conventional soil structure analysis Fermi 3's foundations would require as much concrete as the rest of construction of Fermi 3, essentially doubling the concrete needed, at astronomical expense. DTE is attempting to take major short cuts to avoid that cost with alternative soil structure analysis, modified subtraction, and semi-modified subtraction.
Michael Keegan of Don't Waste Michigan, the intervening environmental coalition's coordinator, has written about the upcoming hearings:
"The culmination of 7 years of vigilance on the proposed Fermi 3 nuclear power plant will occurOctober 29 through November 1, in Monroe. Nuclear Engineer Arnold Gundersen will be serving as our Expert Witness and the lack of Quality Assurance should prove to be the death knell for this Fiasco 3.
Now that the government is going back to work the Hearings on the proposed Fermi 3 will be held.
Limited Oral and Written comment will be taken but the public must pre-register. DTE is already lining up local community leaders and associations to come out and speak in support.  They are following the same Thanksgiving Dinner Template as they did on the FEIS process [Final Environmental Impact Statement, for which public comment meetings were held].
[Please click this link for] excerpts with Instruction. This Hearing is the culmination of having brought forward 30 Contentions before the Atomic Safety Licensing Board.  Please turn out to send the message that there is strong opposition to the proposed Fermi 3 nuclear power plant.
Thank you.
Michael J. Keegan, Don't Waste Michigan/Fermi 3 Intervenor 
Registration Required:  To be considered timely, a written request to make an oral statement must either be mailed, faxed, or sent by e-mail so as to be received by 5:00 PM EDT on Friday,October 18, 2013.  'How-to' info. [is provided at this link], but I am thinking that because of gov't shutdown, we'll be able to get a few [extra] days [added onto that deadline]."
Beyond Nuclear - NUCLEAR POWER - Interventions against proposed new Fermi 3 atomic reactor in Michigan to be heard at Halloween-time






see also

Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 | Fermi 3 is a gamble we cannot afford.
whats up: 10.30 MONROE, MI: All Species Mutant Rally to Halt Fermi 3



10.30 MONROE, MI: All Species Mutant Rally to Halt Fermi 3




Are you aware that DTE wants to build another nuclear reactor in Monroe called Fermi 3?

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be holding hearings on whether or not to build Fermi 3 on Devil's Night & Halloween, how appropriate...

We already have Fermi 2 (which is not functioning properly and has nearly melted down in the past). And, hello, did DTE and our government totally forget about the ongoing disaster at Fukushima? 

Fermi 3 would be an experimental, $20 billion health hazard. Plus, MI doesn't even need the energy it would provide! If you are against this failed technology, please come out and show your support.

WE NEED YOU! This is a critical time in their decision making process. The only thing holding them back from building this thing are the people's voices.

Put on a costume and join us for a Mutant Rally on Wednesday, Oct. 30th. Bring anti-nuclear signs and props. Themes: We are being irradiated by nuclear energy & Fermi 3 is a terrible idea. The more green ooze (aka radioactive waste) you can incorporate into your outfit, the better. Two-headed dandelions, fish, baby dolls, etc. are also very appropriate. ...Radiation is scary.

Coffee & pastries will be provided for those who would like to sit in on the hearings on the 30th & 31st from 8:30-9:20 am before the hearings begin at 9:30 am.

Mutant Rally on Wed., the 30th at 4 pm. That's when we'll need your support to show DTE, NRC, and our government: Fermi 3 is a gamble we can't afford.


All Species Mutant Rally to Halt Fermi 3 (facebook event page)
Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 | Fermi 3 is a gamble we cannot afford.

see also
whats up: 10.29-11.1 MONROE, MI: Interventions against proposed Fermi 3 atomic reactor in Michigan to be heard at Halloween-time


UPDATED Public Meeting Schedule for NRC Waste (no) Confidence





The Chelmsford, Tarrytown, Charlotte, Orlando, and November 14 NRC headquarters meetings are taking place as planned.


The NRC has rescheduled the Oak Brook, Illinois meeting for Tuesday, November 12; the Carlsbad, California meeting for Monday, November 18; and the San Luis Obispo meeting for Wednesday, November 20. The NRC is still working on rescheduling the Perrysburg, Ohio, and Minnetonka, Minnesota meetings. The NRC will communicate dates for rescheduled meetings to interested groups and individuals through the Waste Confidence webpage and the WCOutreach@nrc.gov e-mail list.


10.28 Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Monday, October 28
Radisson Hotel & Suites Chelmsford-Lowell
10 Independence Drive
Chelmsford, MA 01824

10.30 Tarrytown, New York
Wednesday, October 30
Westchester Marriott 
670 White Plains Road 
Tarrytown, NY 10591



-- also: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. EST Monthly Public Teleconference Status Meetinghttp://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1329/ML13291A153.pdf ---

11.4 Charlotte, North Carolina
Monday, November 4
Hilton Charlotte University Place 
8629 J.M. Keynes Drive
Charlotte, NC 28262

11.6 Orlando, Florida
Wednesday, November 6
Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport 
9300 Jeff Fuqua Boulevard
Orlando, FL 32827

11.12 Oak Brook, Illinois
Tuesday, November 12 
Chicago Marriott Oak Brook 
1401 West 22nd Street
Oak Brook, IL 60523


11.14 Rockville, Maryland (webcast/teleconference)
Thursday, November 14
U.S. NRC Headquarters
Commission Hearing Room
11555 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
To listen to the meeting or provide comments by telephone, please dial 
1-888-603-9749 and provide the operator with passcode 5132332. To view the webcast, please go to http://video.nrc.gov


11.18 Carlsbad, California
Monday, November 18
Sheraton Carlsbad Resort & Spa 
5480 Grand Pacific Drive
Carlsbad, CA 92008





11.20 San Luis Obispo, California

Wednesday, November 20
Courtyard by Marriott San Luis Obispo
1605 Calle Joaquin Road
San Luis Obispo, CA 93405



Perrysburg, Ohio
------------------------------RESCHEDULED ------

12.2 TOLEDO/PERRYSBURG: NRC public meeting on #RADWASTE
Hilton Garden Inn Toledo/Perrysburg
6165 Levis Commons Blvd.,
Perrysburg, OH 43551
facebook event page: NRC, Nuclear Waste Con Job, December 2nd



Minnetonka, Minnesota
------------------------------RESCHEDULED ------

12.4 MINNETONKA, MN: NRC public meeting on #RADWASTE
Minneapolis Marriott Southwest 

5801 Opus Parkway
Minnetonka, MN 55343

facebook event page: Waste Confidence December4 Minnetonka, MN


Public Teleconference to Receive Comments on Waste Confidence DGEIS and Proposed Rule
MONDAY DECEMBER 9(Teleconference only – facilitated and transcribed.)
Prior to the start of the meeting, please dial 
1-888-603-9749
 and provide the operator with passcode 5132332


NRC: Public Involvement in Waste Confidence