Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Support NIRS with a donation




NIRS organizes, mobilizes and empowers people in the U.S. and across the world to build a safe, clean and affordable nuclear-free carbon-free energy future for our planet.

NIRS was founded in 1978 to be the national information and networking center for people and environmental activists concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation and sustainable energy issues.

That's still our core function, but we have moved on both programmatically and geographically. Our focus now is to organize, mobilize and empower people across the globe to help build a clean, safe, affordable, nuclear-free carbon-free energy future.




www.nirs.org

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Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Public has till Jan. 9 to comment on DOE proposal to abandon high-level radioactive wastes in situ | Beyond Nuclear - Radioactive Waste What's New


In response to a request by 76 environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has granted until January 9, 2019 for the public to commenton the agency's proposal to deregulate high-level radioactive wastes, and allow for their abandonment in situ, at such places as Hanford Nuclear (Weapons) Reservation on the Columbia River in Washington State, the West Valley reprocessing facility upstream of the Great Lakes in New York, etc.


For more LINKS., including instructions on how to submit comments, CLICK HERE
• see DOE's Federal Register Notice • Sample comments you can use to prepare your own will be posted here, at the top of Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste website section, ASAP.

Public has till Jan. 9 to comment on DOE proposal to abandon high-level radioactive wastes in situ


Nuclear Fox Hervé Courtois of Rainbow Warriors on #Fukushima & TEPCO Lies | Nuclear Hotseat


Nuclear Fox Hervé Courtois & Nuclear Hotseat’s Libbe HaLevy @ the Window Rock of Window Rock, AZ
/ attending the International Uranium Film Festival

LISTEN NOW >

This Week’s Featured Interview:

  • Nuclear Fox – Hervé Courtois of France, aka D’un Renard, or “The Fox” – has been a steadfast provider of reliable nuclear  news, especially from Fukushima, since the first months after the disaster began in 2011.  After many years of trying, at the International Uranium Film Festival, Libbe HaLevy succeeded in cornering him for an interview on why he became so involved with providing nuclear news, and what keeps him going.  Here are his links:

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

Nuclear disaster?  Radiation?  Contamination of Japanese food?  Fukushima sake in Manhattan?  I’ll drink to that!  (… or NOT…)

Activist Links:

  • Public Comment needed on Department of Energy’s proposal to abandon high-level radioactive wastes in situ –  meaning right where it is now, on site at reactors and on already contaminated lands.
  • LA Times article on Marco Kaltofen: “Hidden Danger: Radioactive Dust is Found in Communities Around Nuclear Weapons”
  • For the dust testing protocols after the Woolsey Fire, CLICK HERE.Key facts to remember:
    • Protect yourself from the dust and dirt with a mask and clothing that can be easily washed or even thrown away.
    • Do NOT simply send in to Fairewinds; you MUST get approval and registration with them or your sample will be disposed of without being opened.
    • The results will take at least 5 months, if not longer, to show up.  This is because of the intensity of the testing program and the number of steps that must be taken.   BE PATIENT.  When you get the data, it will be solid and scientific.

LISTEN NOW > Nuclear Fox Hervé Courtois of Rainbow Warriors on #Fukushima & TEPCO Lies | Nuclear Hotseat

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Rudolph the radioactive reindeer | Beyond Nuclear International




by Linda Pentz Gunter

Fallout from Soviet atomic bomb tests over the Arctic Ocean, compounded by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, have left reindeer too radioactive to eat, even today. That may be good news for the reindeer, sort of. But it’s bad news for the indigenous Laplanders in Finland and Sami herders in Norway, who carry high levels of radiation in their own bodies as well as in the reindeer on which they depend for sustenance and sales.

Reindeer carry heavy radioactive doses, mainly of cesium-137, because they devour lichen, moss and fungi, which bioaccumulate radioactive deposits from fallout. Norway’s radioactive contamination is primarily from Chernobyl, made worse because it was snowing heavily at the time of the April 26 accident…

more: Rudolph the radioactive reindeer | Beyond Nuclear International



Thursday, December 13, 2018

Hidden danger: Radioactive dust is found in communities around nuclear weapons sites - Los Angeles Times


Marco Kaltofen, whose studies suggest greater hazards than were previously known from radioactivity surrounding federal nuclear sites. (Tom Carpenter / Hanford Challenge)

At the dawn of the nuclear age, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration placed the nation’s major nuclear weapons production and research facilities in large, isolated reservations to shield them from foreign spies — and to protect the American public from the still unknown risks of radioactivity.

By the late 1980s, near the end of the Cold War, federal lands in South Carolina, Tennessee, New Mexico, Colorado, Ohio and Washington state, among other places, were so polluted with radionuclides that the land was deemed permanently unsuitable for human habitation.

That much has long been accepted as a price for the nation’s nuclear deterrent. But a far more complex problem could emerge if recent research is correct.

Studies by a Massachusetts scientist say that invisible radioactive particles of plutonium, thorium and uranium are showing up in household dust, automotive air cleaners and along hiking trails outside the factories and laboratories that for half a century contributed to the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons…

more: Hidden danger: Radioactive dust is found in communities around nuclear weapons sites - Los Angeles Times


Friday, December 7, 2018

No Uranium Mining On Sacred Land: Big Win For Pine Ridge Reservation



The Oglala Sioux Tribe and activists scored a win, when federal administrative judges ruled that Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has failed to take “a hard look” at cultural resources in recommending renewal of a uranium mining license for Crow Butte Mine, near here. The decision delays permitting.
 
The tribe, intervening in the license renewal application for the mine in Dawes County, Nebraska, adjacent to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, argued that the staff recommended approval in violation of its rights under the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA. 




Resolving in favor of the tribe’s argument, an oversight panel established by the Atomic Licensing and Safety Board ruled: “The NRC staff has not met its identification obligations” under the two laws, “nor has the NRC staff, in its environmental assessment, undertaken a hard look under NEPA at cultural resources within the license area.”


more: White Wolf : No Uranium Mining On Sacred Land: Big Win For Pine Ridge Reservation


Wednesday, December 5, 2018

More Nuclear Energy Is Not The Solution To Our Climate Crisis



Faced with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, some environmental leaders are all too ready to toss a lifeline to aging, uneconomic nuclear power plants. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), long venerated as America’s most rigorous nuclear watchdog group, joined this chorus in early November.
The UCS report, “The Nuclear Dilemma,” proposes that we single out “safe” but financially ailing nuclear plants and subsidize their operations, so that they might remain open — thus avoiding additional carbon emissions from coal or natural gas plants that might replace them. America gets about 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, but only 17 of the 99 reactors that generate this power are unprofitable, according to UCS. Those reactors account for just 3 percent of overall U.S. power generation, though UCS says the share of unprofitable nuclear plants could grow in future years if the price of natural gas drops or the costs of maintaining older nuclear facilities rise.
What do we gain by breathing some extra life into these plants? Proponents say “zero-carbon emissions.” That’s if we choose to ignore the emissions associated with mining and processing uranium, building nuclear power stations, managing nuclear waste, and — on those rare but horrific occasions — dealing with the consequences of a major nuclear disaster.

Bailing out old, financially shaky nuclear plants is a short-sighted response to a huge challenge that requires much bigger, much more transformative thinking. Instead, we ought to invest big in our leading zero-carbon alternatives — solar and wind — which offer far cheaper electricity and, unlike nuclear, have life-cycle costs that have steadily dropped over the past several years…

more: More Nuclear Energy Is Not The Solution To Our Climate Crisis


NIRS Publishes White Paper on Reactor Shutdowns and Phaseout Plans | NIRS



NIRS published a white paper on strategies states can use to manage shutdowns of nuclear reactors responsibly and cost-effectively. Nuclear Reactor Closures: Practical, Cost-Effective Solutions for Communities and the Climate, takes lessons learned from reactor closures and state subsidy programs. It proposes proactive, cost-effective ways for states to plan for shutdowns, while protecting workers and local communities through economic transition and accelerating renewable energy growth and greenhouse gas reductions.

NIRS Publishes White Paper on Reactor Shutdowns and Phaseout Plans | NIRS

nirs.org



Monday, December 3, 2018

Should We Subsidize Nuclear Power to Fight Climate Change? - Scientific American Blog Network



That’s what some are advocating, but the arguments in favor of doing so are flawed

Last month, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) put out a reportentitled The Nuclear Power Dilemma: Declining Profits, Plant Closures, and the Threat of Rising Carbon Emissions that calls for offering subsidies to unprofitable nuclear power plants. Not surprisingly, it has been widely welcomed by nuclear advocates, who interpret the report as essentially saying “yes to nuclear power” in order to reduce carbon emissions.
But that interpretation misses the many important but less prominent insights in the UCS report… read more


Conclusion: "All these factors undermine the report’s central assumption that nuclear plants will be replaced by fossil fueled plants. To be fair, the UCS report does call for periodically assessing whether continued support is necessary and cost effective. But such support might already not be cost effective. All told, the economic basis for subsidies is uncertain at best; more likely, it is flawed. Either way, it may be best to get onward with the transition from fossil fuels and nuclear power to renewables."

Should We Subsidize Nuclear Power to Fight Climate Change? - Scientific American Blog Network



NUCLEAR POWER AND CLIMATE ACTION




When nuclear power started to develop into an ever more important source of electric energy during the second half of the twentieth century, there grew widespread optimism regarding the potential of this seemingly unlimited, clean and, in the long run, economic resource. The unresolved problem of how to dispose of nuclear waste—which degrades very slowly, with a half-life of up to 15.7 million years—existed from the beginning but was widely ignored. Instead, much hope was placed in finding a solution to this problem—a solution that, up to this date, still does not exist.
Those who were skeptical of nuclear power were proven right by the accidents of Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986, and Fukushima in 2011. The latter two incidents in particular encouraged demands for a nuclear power phase-out and led to the establishment of phase-out plans in several countries, including Germany. When the urgency of climate change, along with the necessity of rapid decarbonization, became more evident, many scientists and activists alike pleaded for the use of nuclear power as a transitional technology. They argued that the use of nuclear power could help to avoid shortages in energy supplies caused by the relative unreliability of renewables like wind and solar energy.
In this important new study, Tim Judson, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and renowned nuclear power expert, does away with persistent myths about the importance of nuclear power. Starting not from an abstract position but by considering real-world events, the author demonstrates the very concrete challenges that the production of nuclear power poses for the environment as well as for our economy.
In addition to the long-lasting environmental impacts of nuclear power production, Judson pays attention to how it affects communities—and in particular poor communities of color—through the mining and processing of uranium as well as the disposal of nuclear waste. While mainly focusing on the production and use of nuclear power in the US, as well as possible phase-out scenarios, this study can easily be applied to other contexts around the world. Informed by global trends in climate change, this study is of utmost urgency in showing us a path toward a nuclear-free, sustainable future.
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office introduces this study as an opportunity to carefully investigate the possible potential as well as the dangers of nuclear power, and the question of its suitability as a transitional technology.



NUCLEAR POWER AND CLIMATE ACTION | ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NYC


Monday, October 29, 2018

2018 Uranium Film Festival in the American Southwest | International Uranium Film Festival




2018 URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST






THE INTERNATIONAL URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL RETURNS TO THE DINÉ NATION WITH ADDITIONAL SCREENINGS THROUGHOUT ARIZONA & NEW MEXICO


www.uraniumfilmfestival.org ::: The issue of nuclear power is not only an issue of the Navajo Nation, who suffered for decades because of uranium mining. All people should be informed about the risks of uranium, nuclear weapons and the whole nuclear fuel chain, states International Uranium Film Festival’s Director Norbert G. Suchanek. In an effort to keep people informed and aware, particularly during this critical time of escalating nuclear threats, the International Uranium Film Festival returns to the U.S. Southwest in 2018.

The schedule for the U.S. Southwest tour of the 2018 International Uranium Film Festival is as follows: 

WINDOW ROCK November 29th and 30th and December 1st, Navajo Nation Museum, Hwy 264 & Post Office Loop • FLAGSTAFF December 2nd, Northern AZ University, Native American Cultural Center, 318 W McCreary • ALBUQUERQUE December 6th, Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave • GRANTS December 7th, NM State University Campus, Martinez Hall, 1500 Third St • SANTA FE December 9th, Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave • TUSCON December 12th, 6:30 pm at the YWCA Tucson, Frances McClelland Community Center 525 N. Bonita Ave

We are currently selecting the films which will comprise the International Uranium Film Festival. We encourage especially Native American and women filmmakers to send their films about uranium mining or any nuclear issue to the Festival. The selected films will be shown not only in the Navajo Nation Museum but also in venues in Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Grants, Santa Fe and Tuscon. The best productions will receive the Uranium Film Festival´s award in Window Rock.
We extend our most sincere gratitude to the Levinson Foundation for their support, making this Festival possible. Festival partners and co-organizers of the Uranium Film Festival in the American Southwest are the New Mexico Social Justice and Equity Institute, the SW Indigenous Uranium Forum and the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE).

Further information / Contact
Norbert G. Suchanek
General Director
International Uranium Film Festival
info@uraniumfilmfestival.org(link sends e-mail)
www.uraniumfilmfestival.org
Anna Marie Rondon, Executive Director
New Mexico Social Justice and Equity Institute
505-906-2671 (c)
nmsjei@gmail.com(link sends e-mail)


2018 Uranium Film Festival in the American Southwest | International Uranium Film Festival

(Facebook) Window Rock Uranium Film Festival - Home

(Facebook) Uranium Film Festival in Window Rock

(Facebook) International Uranium Film Festival


International Uranium Film Festival


Thursday, October 25, 2018

Nuclear Hotseat: "Gender & Radiation: The Hidden Nuclear War Against Women & Little Girls"


Gender & Radiation’s depiction of “Reference Man” vs. size of a little girl:
all radiation doses are not equal!


NUCLEAR HOTSEAT #333

This Week’s Featured Interview:

LISTEN NOW –


Monday, October 22, 2018

Radioactive nuclear waste sits on Great Lakes shores


"Nuclear power is licensed and relicensed for commercial operation without an environmentally-responsible, scientifically-accepted plan for long-term management of the nuclear waste. After more than 70-years of generation, no one knows what to do with the first cupful."– Paul Gunter (on facebook)

Great Lakes nuclear plants - Google My Maps


60,000 tons of dangerous radioactive waste sits on Great Lakes shores
THE EFFECTS OF A WORST-CASE SCENARIO — FROM A NATURAL DISASTER TO TERRORISM — COULD CAUSE UNTHINKABLE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE GREAT LAKES REGION.

… Spent nuclear fuel is so dangerous that, a decade removed from a nuclear reactor, its radioactivity would still be 20 times the level that would kill a person exposed to it. Some radioactive byproducts of nuclear power generation remain a health or environmental hazard for tens of thousands of years. And even typically harmless radioactive isotopes that are easily blocked by skin or clothing can become extremely toxic if even small amounts are breathed in, eaten or drank,  making their potential contamination of the Great Lakes — the drinking water supply to 40 million people — the connected Mississippi River and the prime agricultural areas of the U.S. a potentially frightening prospect…

…the remote possibility of a worst-case scenario release — from a natural disaster, a major accident, or an act of terrorism — could cause unthinkable consequences for the Great Lakes region. 

Scientific research has shown a radioactive cloud from a spent fuel pool fire would span hundreds of miles, and force the evacuation of millions of residents in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto or other population centers, depending on where the accident occurred and wind patterns…

read: Radioactive nuclear waste sits on Great Lakes shores

Friday, October 19, 2018

Does Living Near Operating Reactors Cause Childhood Cancers? Nuclear regulators don’t want you to know




More than 60 studies have shown increases of childhood leukemia around nuclear facilities worldwide. Despite this finding, there has never been independent analysis in the US examining connections between childhood cancer and nuclear facilities. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had directed the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct such a study, but then withdrew funding, claiming publicly that it would be too expensive…

Does Living Near Operating Reactors Cause Childhood Cancers? Nuclear regulators don’t want you to know


Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Hear From the Experts at the Low Level Radiation and Health Conference


LOW LEVEL RADIATION AND HEALTH CONFERENCE
STIRLING UNIVERSITY, JUNE 2018
The Low Level Radiation and Health Conference was set up in 1985 by members of the public keen to find out more about these issues.
SATURDAY June 23rd    Chair: Prof David Copplestone, University of Stirling
Video 1    Alice Stewart1 Lecture, Biophotons. Prof. Carmel Mothersill, McMaster University, Canada. 33mins, 45 secs.
https://youtu.be/K2mmfiXpM6s
Video 2    Wildlife impacts: Recent findings concerning germline mutations in bugs and humans, Prof Tim Mousseau, University of South Carolina, USA. 31 mins, 26 secs.
https://youtu.be/LR6BmCkm01M
Video 3    Biological effects of long-term chronic exposure: a case study on Scots pine populations around Chernobyl, Prof Stanislav Geras’kin, Head of Laboratory of Plant Radiobiology and Ecotoxicology from the Russian Institute of Radiology and Agroecology. 30 mins, 35 secs.
https://youtu.be/Ym6w6Qqu46M
Health Impacts
Video 4    Organ damage from exposure to infrasound, Prof. Mariana Alves Pereira. She worked with the chief medical officer for the Portuguese Aeronautical Industry. 39 mins, 18 secs.
https://youtu.be/ou9_-YtxlKo
Video 5    Gender Matters in the Atomic Age, Mary Olson, US Nuclear Information + Resource Service, NIRS. Followed by questions. 30 mins 48secs.
https://youtu.be/0lABP90CqQ4
1 Alice Stewart was the doyenne of the low level radiation debate and gave her stalwart support to the Conference
Sunday June 24th    Chair: Prof David Copplestone: Aubrey+Richards workshops2
Video 6    Update on the situation with nuclear power in the USA. Mary Olsen, Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
https://youtu.be/3DEbTz5fI1w    12 mins, 36 secs.
Video 7    Radiation Monitoring in the USA. Tim Mousseau, University of South Carolina.    13 mins, 55 secs.
https://youtu.be/jws09oEGN34
Video 8    The Welsh Connection. John Urquhart. 29 mins, 32 secs. https://youtu.be/viNOlexO-pE
Video 9    The ARGUS Monitoring Project. Graham Denman 51 mins, 05 secs. https://youtu.be/5idrwf14vMs
Video 10    Fracking and Waste Water Treatment in the UK. John Busby, Dr Ian Fairlie, given by Jill Sutcliffe. 15 mins, 41 secs.
https://youtu.be/9lv-w9Rnuuk
Thank you to all who contributed to the success of this event.

Hear From the Experts at the Low Level Radiation and Health Conference | mariannewildart.wordpress.com


Thursday, October 11, 2018

Annual dose of empirical data shows nuclear power in continued decline – Report tracks global success of renewable energy | Beyond Nuclear International




Annual dose of empirical data shows nuclear power in continued decline

By Linda Pentz Gunter
When arguing the case for or against nuclear energy, you can go with the masters of spin and omission or you can go with the empirical data. We prefer the latter. And for that, there is the welcome annual edition of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report.
After that, the job becomes easy. There IS no case for nuclear power. It’s fundamentally over. Yet governments — mainly those of nuclear weapons states — cling on to it even as their fingers are loosened one at a time from the ledge. They refuse to fall. Why?
These questions are largely answered in the 2018 edition of the WNISR which rolled out in London, UK on September 4, and is available for download — in full or as an executive summary — from the WNISR website… … …
more: Report tracks global success of renewable energy | Beyond Nuclear International


Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Public comments to NRC needed in opposition to the WCS/ISP CISF scheme, by Oct. 19 deadline! | Beyond Nuclear - Centralized Storage


Beyond Nuclear files hearing request, petition to intervene, opposing Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners  rad. waste CISF (Consolidated Interim Storage Facility) which would store 40,000 metric tons of highly radioactive, commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, if its license application to construct and build is approved. The scheme would also launch unprecedented numbers of shipments of high-level radioactive waste by road, rail, and/or waterway through most states. 

PUBLIC COMMENT NEEDED! ••• DEADLINE OCT 19th. 

Beyond Nuclear - Centralized Storage - Public comments to NRC needed in opposition to the WCS/ISP CISF scheme, by Oct. 19 deadline!




Thursday, October 4, 2018

Radioactivity harms us and no dose is “safe” | Beyond Nuclear International



A “small” dose can do immense damage; our new handbook explains how and why

All nuclear power plants routinely release radioactive gases and water contaminated with radioactive isotopes. When a nuclear plant has a serious accident — as occurred at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima — orders of magnitude more radioactivity is released into the environment.
Uranium mining also releases harmful radioactive isotopes and leaves behind radioactive waste. The 1979 uranium tailings pond spill at Church Rock, NM — 90 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste and 1,100 tons of solid mill waste — was the largest accidental release of radioactive waste in US history and permanently contaminated the Puerco River.
Radioactive releases occur all along the uranium fuel chain, beginning with uranium mining and culminating in radioactive waste “management.”
All of these releases — whether large or small (because there is no “safe” dose) — impact human health with varying degrees of severity. And yet most of the time, these impacts are poorly understood, hushed up, or even dismissed. When discoveries are made — such as increased rates of leukemia in populations living near nuclear power or reprocessing plants — there is an immediate effort by industry, often supported by governments, to undermine, challenge or negate such findings.
The fact remains, however, that both the immediate and long-term damage done to human health — which can last for generations — is the single, most compelling reason not to continue with the use of nuclear power and the extractive, polluting industries that must support it.
The Radiation and Harm to Human Health chapter of the Beyond Nuclear anti-nuclear handbook, is available now for download and printing as a standalone booklet. In it, we endeavor to both explain and synthesize the many ways that radioactivity released through the nuclear power sector damages human health, especially the most vulnerable members of our population — women, pregnancy, babies and young children…

more: Radioactivity harms us and no dose is “safe” | Beyond Nuclear International

NEW HANDBOOK: "The Case Against Nuclear Power: Radiation and Harm to Human Health" (PDF)



Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Trump’s EPA is moving to weaken regulation on radiation exposure | PBS NewsHour



WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is quietly moving to weaken U.S. radiation regulations, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you — like a little bit of sunlight.

The government’s current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer risk. And critics say the proposed change could lead to higher levels of exposure for workers at nuclear installations and oil and gas drilling sites, medical workers doing X-rays and CT scans, people living next to Superfund sites and any members of the public who one day might find themselves exposed to a radiation release…

Trump’s EPA is moving to weaken regulation on radiation exposure | PBS NewsHour


Sunday, September 23, 2018

▶ ECU #628 TURNING THE HEAVENS INTO A WAR ZONE | Karl Grossman



Karl Grossman​ :: “Turning the Heavens Into a War Zone.” This just-out TV program, part of the "Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman" series, spotlights how if Trump gets his way on formation of a U.S. Space Force, the heavens would become a war zone.

Inevitably, there would be military conflict in space. The program details how the Space Force scheme flies in the face of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 that designates space as the global commons to be used for peaceful purposes. It tells of how space weaponry would be nuclear-powered—as Reagan's “Star Wars” scheme was to be, with nuclear reactors and plutonium systems on orbiting battle platforms providing the power for hypervelocity guns, particle beams and laser weapons. Amid the many horrible things being done by the Trump administration, turning the heavens into a war zone would be the most terribly destructive. The coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Bruce Gagnon, is featured in the program and discusses what people can do to stop this.

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Brunswick Nuclear Hurricane Florence UPDATE w/Dave Lochbaum | NUCLEAR HOTSEAT


Brunswick Nuclear site map of vulnerability to flooding from ocean surge, Cape Fear River.
From Dave Lochbaum powerpoint (available below)

LISTEN NOW


#Brunswick #Nuclear reactors - is it in hot or cold shutdown? What's ongoing flooding danger f/Cape Fear River now that Brunswick is a nuclear island unreachable by land? Dave Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists, explains. Plus plutonium-laced #RockyFlats "wildlife refuge" opens - Leroy Moore. Nuclear Hotseat #378

This Week’s Featured Interviews:

  • BRUNSWICK NUCLEAR UPDATE – Dave Lochbaum, Director of the Nuclear Safety Project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, explains the safety status of Brunswick Nuclear Reactors 1 & 2, both the same model as melted down at Fukushima Daiichi.  Learn the difference between hot shutdown and cold shutdown – and how the industry simply uses “shutdown” to spinspeak us all!
    LINK to Dave Lochbaum’s pdf on Brunswick specs, CLICK HERE.
  • LeRoy Moore is a writer and former academic   closely associated with Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, who since 1979 has focused on issues of public health, environmental well-being, and nuclear abolition related to the now closed Rocky Flats nuclear bomb factory.


Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

So many choices, so hard to choose, when the entire industry is out of it’s f’ing mind!

Activist Links:

  • Intertribal Gathering at Red Butte, Montana – Oct. 5 – tribal members only; open to the public Oct. 6-7.  Sponsored by the Havasupai Tribal Council.  CONTACT:  928-448-2731

LISTEN NOW: Brunswick Nuclear Hurricane Florence UPDATE w/Dave Lochbaum


Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Space Force has Nazi Roots?! Bruce Gagnon & Space4Peace - NuclearHotseat #377


LISTEN NOW

Space Force – will it make the U.S. the Evil Empire? Global Network’s 2018 Keep Space for Peace week poster.

This Week’s Featured Interview:

  • SPACE FORCE / EVIL FORCE?  Bruce Gagnon, Co-Founder and Secretary/Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and a 30 year veteran of actions against nuclear weaponry and expansionism in space.   Bruce reveals the shocking roots of our space program and NASA, corporate/military/industrial goals for space, and what China and Russia are doing to sidestep our best laid plans.


  • Category 4-5 Hurricane Florence bearing down on N. Carolina coast, with Brunswick 1 and 2 nuclear reactors – THE EXACT SAME MODEL GE MARK I REACTOR MODEL AS MELTED DOWN AT FUKUSHIMA – dead center at landfall. 
and more!

LISTEN: Space Force has Nazi Roots?! Bruce Gagnon & Space4Peace - NH #377



Tuesday, September 11, 2018

What Are Coastal Nuclear Power Plants Doing to Address Climate Threats? | Truthout




…According to maps prepared by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), around one in four of the world’s 460 working commercial nuclear reactors are situated on coastlines. Many were built only 10–20 meters (30–70 feet) above sea level at a time when climate change was barely considered a threat. 
In the US, where nine nuclear plants are within 2 miles (3 kilometers) of the ocean and four reactors have been identified by Stanford academicsas vulnerable to storm surges and sea-level rise, flooding is common, says David Lochbaum, a former nuclear engineer and director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). 
Lochbaum says over 20 flooding incidents have been recorded at US nuclear plants since the early 1980s. “The most likely [cause of flooding] is the increasing frequency of extreme events,” he says.
“There was no consideration of climate change when most US plants were built,” says Natalie Kopytko, a University of Leeds researcher who has studied nuclear power plant adaptations to climate change. “They used conservative models of historical reference. Also, they were largely built at a calm period, when there were not many major storms.”
“While an accident has never yet happened due solely to sea-level rise and storms, the flooding experienced at Fukushima resembles what could occur in the future from sea-level rise,” says Kopytko.

Considering Climate Change

IAEA’s current global safety standards were published in 2011. These state that operators should only “take into account” the 18- to 59-centimeter (7- to 23-inch) sea-level rise projected by 2100 in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s fourth assessment report, published in 2007. 
But those safety standards don’t factor in the most recent assessment of the IPCC, published in 2013–14. This scientific consensus report has seas rising 26 centimeters (10 inches) to 1 meter (39 inches) by 2100, depending on how far temperature continue to rise and the speed at which the polar ice caps melt. 
1-meter (39-inch) increase, combined with high tides and a storm surge, significantly increases the risk of coasts and nuclear stations being swamped, says Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. 
“Nuclear stations are on the front line of climate change impacts both figuratively and quite literally,” Mann says. “We are likely profoundly underestimating climate change risk and damages in coastal areas…”

read: What Are Coastal Nuclear Power Plants Doing to Address Climate Threats?