Nuclear Hotseat Hosted By Libbe Halevy

Evolutionary biologist Dr. Timothy Mousseau on his on his groundbreaking, on-the-ground research at Chernobyl and Fukushima on the mutations showing up in a wide variety of species. A Nuclear Hotseat special encore presentation. Don Safer of the Tennessee Environmental Council and the Nuclear Matters Committee for the Sierra Club on the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), Oak Ridge, and a possible reason behind the push for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). A must-listen for anyone living in the American southeast.

Cyber-Security risks to nuclear reactors, near-misses with Three Mile Island Alert's Scott Portzline. And a memorial on the passing of Chernobyl's fearless science-warrior, Dr. Alexei Yablakov. His book, CHERNOBYL: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environement, scientifically proved and broke the silence surrounding the devastation created by that nuclear disaster. Nuclear Hotseat 291, produced and hosted by Libbe HaLevy.

Paul Gunter is Director, Reactor Oversight Project for Beyond Nuclear specializing in all aspects of reactor hazards and security. We discuss France’s Areva Le Creusot forge and the faulty major nuclear reactor parts produced there which are reported to be in use by 19 US nuclear reactors on 11 sites. Numnutz of the Week (for Nuclear Boneheadedness): When is a new nuclear bomb NOT a “new” nuclear bomb? When the government says so, silly! Not even when it comes with – I kid you not – “Dial-a-Yield” technology!

Dr. Christopher Busby, a British nuclear scientist who has been representing UK nuclear test veterans in a major court case, shares some remarkable new information about the impact of low dose radiation on fertility and genetic health. European Report with Shaun McGee in Ireland. Numnutz of the Week (for Nuclear Boneheadedness): Mmmmm mmmmm! Japan’s newly discovered Hot Rad Potato Chips, straight from Fukushima-adjacent prefectures to your internal organs. Bet you can’t eat just one… Bequerel!

Nuclear Numnutz Year in Review, featuring 2016’s biggest #nuclear idiocy leading to (drumroll...) NUMNUTZ OF THE YEAR! Is it… Fukushima? 2020 Tokyo Olympics? Pilgrim Reactor? Rocky Flats? Radioactive waste shipments? Nuclear industry propaganda, spin and lies? Or maybe something orange and bananas…? Nuclear Hotseat #288.

Dr. Alex Rosen of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), uses that group’s footnoted, documented, peer-reviewed and fully vetted report to contradict the lies in the United Nations’ UNSCEAR report that seeks to minimize Fukushima radiation dangers. Then epidemiologist Joseph Mangano of Radiation and Public Health Project provides another damning response to the UNSCEAR report on Fukushima and the negative impact it is likely to have on the case of the USS Reagan sailors, who were hit with high levels of radiation while on an humanitarian aid mission to Fukushima immediately after the nuclear disaster began.

Diane Turco of Cape Downwinders on what it was like to be the recipient of a wayward NRC email that spilled the beans on how bad the Entergy’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station at the base of Cape Cod really is. And Kristen Iversen, author of the superb book Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, explains the Preliminary Results of the Rocky Flats Health Survey, which is meant to determine what has happened to the health of those who lived and worked in proximity with that nuclear weapons production site near Denver and Boulder, Colorado.

Illinois' "corporate welfare" bailout of #Exelon's two nukes hits while activists hold Nuclear Waste Strategy Summit in Chicago. Whatt're the odds?And if you’re anywhere in the EU – DON’T EAT THE UKRAINE “ORGANIC” BERRIES! #Nuclear Hotseat http://bit.ly/2gANd4o

Lucas Hixon is a nuclear researcher who has been on-the-ground at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, part of a US-led coalition of experts and professionals who work hand in hand with the workers. We spoke initially while he was in Ukraine, but waited until he was back in the US to talk about issues stemming from the placement of the New “Safe” Confinement structure; questions about the long term soundness of the new structure that require close monitoring in the coming years, and implications for the Fukushima clean-up from what has been learned at Chernobyl. NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK: Ahhh, Gina “Never-Met-A-Nuke-I-Didn’t-Like-and-Cover-For” McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency – did you really thing we’d swallow those “Protective” Action Guides (PAGs) that allow for 1,000, 10,000, up to 100,000 times the Safe Drinking Water Act without you becoming Numnutz, yet again???

Robbin Ellison Dailey and her husband Mike own the home in North St. Louis less than half a mile from the radioactive nuclear waste burial site at Republic Service’s West Lake Landfill. They recently had the house tested for radiation… and discovered Thorium 230-contaminated dust at 1000x above background radiation levels. We spoke with Robbin on Monday, November 21 about the situation with her home and what it’s like to be hit with that kind of news.

Filmmaker Robbie Leppzer discusses his new film, POWER STRUGGLE, about the battle to close down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Audio excerpts from the film include some choice observations by nuclear engineer and Fairewinds Energy’s Arnie Gundersen. A tribute to Dr. Steven Wing of the University of North Carolina’s Dept of Epidemiology, a brilliant scientist who passed away on November 9.

Mitsuhei Murata, former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland and an outspoken critic of Japan's nuclear policies, has issued a statement calling for the United Nations to hold an "International Day for Global Ethics" in the wake of their resolution to negotiate a treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. The interview is an Encore Presentation of our conversation on Japan needing to declare an "honorable retreat" from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, originally presented on Nuclear Hotseat #234, December 15, 2016.

Bo Jacobs is a Professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute of Hiroshima City University, where he is a historian of nuclear technologies and radiation techno-politics. He is the author of The Dragon’s Tail: Americans Face the Atomic Age, (also available in a Japanese translation), and the editor of Filling the Hole in the Nuclear Future: Art and Popular Culture Respond to the Bomb (2010), along with the author of numerous scientific papers. Since 2010 he has been a co-researcher for the Global Hibakusha Project. Numnutz of the Week: Fukushima Prefecture plans to burn “lightly irradiated” wood to shrink the volume of waste by 99.5% – BUT NOT THE AMOUNT OF RADIOACTIVITY! Thus they’ll be concentrating the contamination and releasing it as smoke, ash and soot. But hey, it LOOKS like it’s less! And they have the GALL to call what they’ll be creating “green power!” Numnutz fer shure!

The Fort Calhoun nuclear reactor is OVER AND OUT, FOR GOOD! (...except for the radioactive waste, which will be with us forever...) Libbe HaLevy interviews LaVerne Thraen, a veteran energy activist who has been opposing the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station since the 1980’s. They spoke less than an hour after it was shut down for good, on Monday, October 24, 2016. Diane Turco of Cape (Cod) Downwinders fills us in on last week’s #ShutPilgrimNow Citizen Speak-out at the Massachusetts State House. Call is out for everyone to call Governor Charlie Baker’s office and tell him the reactor needs to be shut down NOW: (617) 725-4005 Numnutz of the Week: James Hanson follows Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbles' playbook to accuse the anti-nuclear movement of everything that nukes are guilty of doing.

Dr. Ian Fairlie has studied radiation and radioactivity since the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and has been a consultant on radiation matters to the European Parliament, local and regional governments, environmental NGOs, and private individuals. Second interview: Eiji Ogama made the film “Tell the Prime Minister” on the Japanese anti-nuclear movement using Youtube videos (with permission) and interviews done specifically for the film. He catches the movement at its peak, culminating in the 2012 demonstration in front of the Prime Minister's residence which consisted of over 200,000 demonstrators.

US nukes dodge Hurricane Matthew’s bullet - barely - w/three NRC “Unusual Events” at east coast reactors. India/Japan #nuclear agreement subverts post-Bhopal international liability laws, dumps costs on Indian people - of course! That's what the nuclear industry does! India's Kumar Sundaram (at left in photo) on the ground in Japan in advance of next month's "seal the deal" summit between India's PM Modi and Japan's PM Abe. #NuclearHotseat 277. http://bit.ly/2e4ASZQ

Nuclear Hotseat’s Libbe HaLevy interviews Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space's Bruce Gagnon on the nuclear agenda of the US space program, the pieces already in place, and international attempts to stop it during this, the week of #KeepSpaceForPeace actions around the world. Special extended interview. #NuclearHotseat 276: http://bit.ly/2dQ0fOt

Byron DeLear brings us up to date on the latest dithering by EPA and Congressional turf wars while the people who live near the West Lake Landfill in N. St. Louis continue to suffer and get sick. Don Hancock is Executive Director of the Southwest Information and Research Center, a nuclear watchdog group headquartered in Albuquerque, NM. He provides details on New Mexico's sale of 1,000 acres of land near Carlsbad for possible use by nuclear dry cask manufacturer Holtec as an "interim" storage site for high level nuclear waste. Plus News, Views and Attitude!

Prof. Celine-Marie Pascale of American University in Washington, D.C. is a sociologist who did a study of mainstream media coverage in the first two years after Fukushima – and not only are her observations stunning, she’s got the data to back them up. Originally presented on Nuclear Hotseat #203, May 2, 2015. Nuclear Hotseat European correspondent Shaun McGee reports on growing response to the BBC Panorama documentary on nuclear safety problems at the UK’s Sellafield facility. Numnutz of the Week: Just thinking about why Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) thinks that nuclear energy is “pollution free” (?!?!?????) is enough to give a girl the (radioactive) vapors! Has he never heard of plutonium? Or does he think that’s just the name of one of Walt Disney’s characters?