Nuclear Hotseat Hosted By Libbe Halevy

What do we anti-nukers have to be thankful for? Listen as a dozen activists from all over the country express their gratitude for wins, shared battles, unexpected camaraderie and the miracle that is our growing community. If you need a reminder of why we do it, listen with your heart, because it's all about love. PLUS THESE WINS: Whales and dolphins safe from PG&E! Exelon to shut down Oyster Creek? Switzerland to have a national initiative to shut down its nuclear reactors! And this NUMNUTZ ALERT: The newly formed Japan Nuclear Safety Institute (JANSI) has been formed "to strive to achieve the world's highest level of nuclear safety" by "enhancing safety culture, disseminating information about nuclear safety, and conducting peer reviews." How about CLEANING UP FUKUSHIMA, YOU NIMRODS?!?

Interview w/Marius Paul and Candyce Paul of Committee for Future Generations in Saskatchewan discuss their ancestral warnings against touching "black stone" (uranium), the impact of 12 uranium mines on the health of their people, the politics of poverty in guaranteeing the nuke interests always win, and the genocidal dangers of building Canada's proposed nuclear waste repository on their ancestral homelands. Plus: NRC, SCE duck the public and their responsibility for safety re: San Onofre while preparing to restart one reactor w/o any safety tests ; Fukushima clean-up now estimated to cost 10 TRILLION yen ($125.6 billion US$); Japan ships radioactive apples to Thailand; and Russia (RUSSIA?!?) tests imports for radioactivity and sent 316 shipments back to Japan - but the US doesn't even bother to check. AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

Remember the senior citizens who volunteered to help clean up Fukushima to spare younger workers from radiation exposure? Nuclear Hotseat interviews Yastel Yamada, the man who helped start the group, as he talks about graft, censorship and the politics of the Fukushima clean-up. Plus the Japanese prince who's no prince, the nuclear amusement park, and radioactive tobacco so hazardous to your health, even Japanese cigarette makers won't touch it!

It seems we ducked the nuclear bullet from Superstorm Sandy... but what happens the next time there's an attack like this from Mother Nature? Learn about what the real nuclear dangers were that we faced from Sandy, how the NRC "responded," what Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds.com and Michael Mariotte of NIRS.org say about the unfolding events, and what we in the nuclear-free movement can do to reinforce the need to shut down these disasters-in-waiting.

San Onofre leaks again and it's not even on line! Wisconsin nuke plant Kewaunee goin' down because no one wanted to buy it! Interview w/Alice Slater of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation on the reactors/bombs connection and how all our current political struggles are just outposts in the same battle; Lithuanian democracy's nonbinding referendum's 62% against nukes bums out GE-Hitachi (awwwww!); butterfly mutations showing up in genomic progression in Japan; and a "nuclear preparedness" boilerplate press kit suitable for any level of disaster! Our tax dollars at work, indeed...

Journalist Karl Grossman distills 45 years of covering this country's nuclear insanity into a compelling interview with Nuclear Hotseat producer/host Libbe HaLevy. The gamesmanship started BEFORE Hiroshima and continues to this day; learn how it happened and what we can do about it. PLUS: Greenpeace camps out atop a Swedish nuclear reactor... and nobody notices ; Japan set to again export Kobe beef to US but doesn't mention the "R" word (radiation); Lithuania nixes new nuke plant; citizens set to sue Entergy over destruction of environment; and Indian nuclear industry publishes a glossy coffeetable book showing butterflies in nuclear exclusion zones... but forgot to include the mutations showing up at Fukushima or the fasciation mutations of plants, flowers, fruit, vegetables, animals... and people? Who are these people and what makes us trust that they're sane?

Interview with Kristen Iversen, author of Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, on secrets both nuclear and familial. A stunningly well-researched, well-written book. PLUS: An update on Japan's ongoing nuclear tragedy, including governmental genocide towards Fukushima's children, cattle deaths, deadly condition of Units 1 and 4. Even the NRC's premiere pro-nuker, Commissioner Magwood, weighs in as not having much hope for Japan.

Interview w/Nuclear-Free Illinois founder Dr. Lora Chamberlain on setting up a Rapid Response Network that pulls small local groups into a statewide unit; US strongarms Japan's Noda away from no nukes by 2030 policy; Exxon to drill near massive Soviet radiation dump in Arctic ocean; Koodankulam protestors blockade sea lanes, thousands bury them selves in sand so they can't be moved, but India continues to fuel-up the nuclear reactors; five quakes of 6.3 to 4.4 in Northeast Japan, three at Fukushima, all in a single day; Nazi-style radiation testing center to be set up in Fukushima within the month; and Australia's capitol province to be nuke-free by 2020... and it won't cost anything! Listen and learn how!

Interview w/Sean Bonner, one of the founders of Safecast, which provides radiation testing devices on the ground in Japan and elsewhere in the world to map radiation levels. The group uses open source designs and encourages anyone who likes to use or adapt their designs. Humanitarianism at its best. Plus: Japan declares they're phasing out nuclear by the 2030's, but there are some holes in their announcement; two nukes in Belgium shut down because of cracks; Quebec will shut down its one reactor; and Spain closing down another; NRC accused of covering up flood threats from upstream dams; Indian Point loses to "terrorists" in safety drill; and Dianukes announces the first-ever (but definitely not the last) Nuke Liar Awards! Nominate your favorite numnutz! Give them the recognition they so richly deserve.

Re-engineered interview of January 10 w/Dr. Janette Sherman and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano on their analysis of EPA and CDC death statistics post-Fukushima that point to 14,000 additional US deaths in the weeks after the nuclear disaster. A classic of information on radiation effects of Fukushima as well as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. PLUS: Police kill anti-nuke protesters at Koodankulam in India, including a small girl; the fight is on to stop PG&E from exterminating CA sea life to justify keeping Diablo Canyon NPP chugging away atop its earthquake faults; TEPCO's Unit 4 lies countered by nuclear physicist Nils Bohmer and Arnie Gundersen; TEPCO alters unit 4 photo w/bad photoshop, then pulls it, then crops it, then admits to it... but won't say why; Japan feeding school children radioactive milk, oranges, apples - why? Because they're the government and they say so and anyone who doesn't believe them and eat the food is "chicken!" (the Mayor of Kawasaki City really said that!).

Fukushima Diary blogger Iori Mochizuki on how he accidentally founded one of the world's most read anti-nuclear blogs; NRC denies license to Calvert Cliffs - only the second time in its history these rubberstampers have turned down a nuclear request!; San Onofre to get cost/benefit analysis to see if it makes sense to attempt to reopen it (CLUE: The answer is NO!); Dr. Michael Nobel of the Nobel Prize family focuses attention on radioactive contamination of US milk and water in Hawaii and west coast; and double the Nuclear Numnutz this week: Fukushima trying to attract Tokyo's high school students as tourists AND three cities in Saitama prefecture to recycle radioactive rubble from Fukushima as... cement . So much insanity, so little time...

Interview with Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Executive Director Lou Zeller on how to grow grassroots activism, southeastern U.S. nuke issues, plus his organizaation's support for the CAN Rally for a Nuclear Free Future. PLUS: Picketing Whales, India's $9 numnutz protection of nukers (say it isn't so!), tsunami debris already hitting Alaska hard, and Katie, the radioactive goat, has died. In a related story, Dominion Resources denies that its Millstone nuclear power plant, only five miles away from Katie's pasture, was the source of the strontium in her milk. By that logic, they would also like to interest you in land speculation in northeast Japan.

Mary Olson on nuclear reactors in hot water and what it really means; How To Be a Homebound Activist (hint: Yes You CAN); Hanford leaking; NRC just might decide to maybe study health risks for those who live near nuclear reactors; SCE letting 730 San Onofre workers go "beause Unit 3 is unlikely to produce power any time soon" (Let's retrain them to work in solar!); Kucinich demands NRC investigate its own handling of Davis Besse restart; mutated worms and eggplant in Japan; radioactive fish 258 times higher than Japanese government deems safe found 12.5 miles off Fukushima; and Pennsylvania gives free potassium iodide tablets to anyone living near Limerick NPP - the question being: WHY???

Interview w/Mary Olson, Director of the SE office of NIRS.org, on what the June 8 DC court ruling means to the battle against nuclear waste production (meaning reactors and their radioactive legacy). PLUS: 82 year old "terrorist" nun breaks into Oak Ridge nuclear facility armed w/a Bible, candles and spray paint - embarrassing the National Nuclear Security Administration for their ridiculous lack of security for 100 tons of highly enriched uranium (Jellyfish*, meet Numnutz**); on a scale of 1-7 for nuclear disasters, Fukushima now ranks at an 8; mutated butterflies in Japan; "suspicion of cracks" in Belgian reactor; Republican VP nominee's wife lobbied for Vermont Yankee; and new NRC Chair Macfarlane wonders how quake-proof all those nuclear reactors really are (heck the latest "quake-proof" rankings at www.NuclearHotseat.com/blog). *Jellyfish - Nuclear heroes - that's the nun ** Nuclear Numnutz - Just what it sounds like.

Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear on radioactive waste storage problems, options, how we got in this mess and what if anything can be done about it. BREAKING NEWS - NRC freezes all nuclear reactor construction and operating licenses! PLUS: San Diego's COPS (Citizens Oversight Projects) challenges San Onofre's failure to review steam generator failure (Go, Ray Lutz!); California Democratic party calls for independent design review before restart can be considered; Prime Minister "The Pendulum" Noda agrees to meet with protestors, then cancels, says Japan's nuke future will be decided by end of month, then says maybe not; TEPCO games radiation monitors in Fukushima, while radiation showing up 300x normal in mushrooms 80 miles from the damaged reactors; and Mochizuki Iori from Fukushima Diary does the math: the radiation released from Fukushima equals 168 Hiroshima-type a-bombs... and they did it to themselves.

Anatomy of a consciousness raising meeting with an aide to the Mayor of West Hollywood - a basic how-to for activists. PLUS: Japanese anti-nuke demonstrators get pushy at their Parliament building; Extreme increase in mortality from heart attacks in Japan since Fukushima disaster began; Southern California Edison laying plans to restart San Onofre by November while activists launch their "Hell, no!"; US nuclear power production at 9-year low because of heat and drought; and the Numnutz of the Week Award returns because the TVA and Brown's Ferry deserve it.

Engineer and activist Ray Lutz "nukes" the NRC's cover-up of SCE's responsibility for San Onofre's steam generator problems; 4 nuke plants trigger NRC "Unusual Events" in a single day... but no blackouts; Illinois reactor in "hot water" - at 102 degrees, cooling water can't cool; Japanese prime minister admits that nuclear energy is dividing the nation; TEPCO gets a rate hike as well as a bailout, while temperature gauge cables on verge of breaking at Fukushima and subcontractor forces clean-up workers to cover their dosimeters w/lead shields; and in all this, Russia is doing a better job at protecting its citizens from radiation than the US.!

Interview w/filmmaker Chris Noland (NOT Christopher Nolan from "Batman"), who recorded the first months after Fukushima as a relief worker in the field. His film, "311 Surviving Japan" is in post-production and already garnering overwhelming response in preview screenings. PLUS: 170,000 march against nukes in Japan; KEPCO cooked the energy books, turning off 8 functioning thermal plants to "justify" restarting the nukes; Cesium 134 and 137 found in 2011 crop CA almonds and prunes; internal radiation 100 times worse than a chest x-ray; and SCE scolds San Onofre employees for leaking documents to Arnie Gundersen at Fairewinds.com... which we learned because somebody leaked THAT document to Fairewinds!

Report on Fukushima resident and activist Chieko Shiina's heartrending presentation on current life in Japan and Fukushima, along with information on how to help her start the Fukushima Children's Clinic to address pressing health problems. Plus: Fukushima determined by Japanese committee to be "a man-made disaster" (incompetence can do that!); TEPCO top execs resign... only to get their golden parachutes ; San Onofre whistleblowers not covered by state protective laws (blame it on the Marines!); ; more evil doings by Dr. Shunich Yamashita, Japan's equivalent of Dr. Mengele; health problems rampant in Fukushima but the governnment isn't listening; international nukes take a business hit across the board; Japanese TB outbreak believed linked to radiation; Czech Republic to give sanctuary and healing protocols for 30 "radiation refugees" -- Fukushima children ages 12-14; and 150,000 protest restart of Oi reactors, but it's the direct attack by swarms of jellyfish that slowed it down. Let's hear it for Ma Natu

Get the inside scoop on this September's Coalition Against Nukes rally and actions in Washington, D.C. from Dr. Heidi Hutner and Michael Leonardi, long time anti-nuclear activists serving as coordinators for the event. Plus Japanese scientists share earthquake data and dire predictions as KEPCO restarts the Oi reactors; Fukushima Unit 4 a mere gasket failure away from catastrophe, while Unit 1 radiation is so high its dismantling (a 40 year process at best) will require robot technology that has not yet been invented; Federal appellate court sinks Vermont's recent strategy to deny Entergy's Vermont Yankee re-license; Colorado's Rocky Flats $926 million judgment struck down; South Korea bans 35 Japanese seafood products, bringing their total to 64; Contact info from last week's interviewee, environment attorney Susan Hito Shapiro, for anti-nuke lawyers who want to support each other; and evacuation advice from Fukushima to Oi -- also works for the 1/3 of all Americans who live within 50 miles of a nuclear re