Nuclear Hotseat

Featured Image:  Stanislav Petrov, “The Man Who Saved the World” (1936-2017) This Week’s Featured Interview: Marianne Birkby is a wildlife artist who founded Radiation Free Lakeland in 2008 to oppose geological dumping of nuclear waste and new nuclear developments in Cumbria in the UK.  The groups aim is nuclear safety and that has recently included...

Never doubt that a single activistcan make all the difference in the world.  This week’s featured interview: Never doubt that a single activist can make all the difference in the world.  Patty Ameno grew up in Apollo, Pennsylvania, 35 miles NE of Pittsburgh, not realizing that her childhood home was directly across the street from...

Hurricanes and Nukes:A Special Report Post-Irma and Harvey This Week’s Featured Interviews: Maggie Gundersen is founder of Fairewinds Energy Education, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission of educating the public about nuclear power production, engineering, reliability, and safety issues.  She is also a former employee of the nuclear industry.Fairewinds Reports: Article – Hurricane Season and...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Nancy Foust of SimplyInfo.org again joins us to review the actual flooding at South Texas Project’s nuclear reactors next to Bay City, Texas. Satellite map of flooding at South Texas Project nuclear facility (UC Davis via Simply Info, with permission) Rundown on nuclear threat at Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear...

A Nuclear Hotseat SPECIAL:The Ongoing Nuclear Aftermath ofHurricane Harvey This Week’s Featured Interviews: Paul Gunter is Director of the Reactor Oversight Project for Beyond Nuclear. Nancy Foust is Communications Manager & Research Team Member at SimplyInfo.org,  a not-for-profit research collective that holds and manages the world’s largest public archive of data on the Fukushima disaster. Susan...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: 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...

This Week’s Featured Interviews – North Korea Close-up: Bruce Gagnon is the secretary/coordinator of Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.  He provides the history of US/N. Korea relations, a context for understanding what the countries are threatening, Donald Trump’s misplaced bellicosity, and the likelihood that Kim Jong Un will drop a nuke...

Featured Image:  Protesters against proposed Chalk River nuclear waste dump,intended to be sited next to the Ottawa River This Week’s Featured Interviews: Paul Gunter, Director, Reactor Oversight Project for Beyond Nuclear, gets into the complexities of what the abandonment of the V.C. Summer two-reactor build in South Carolina means.  For SC ratepayers, the news is not...

Featured Image:  What a Hiroshima-sized nuclear bomb would do to Lower Manhattan. This Week’s Featured Interviews: Garrett Graff, author of RAVEN ROCK: The Story of the US Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself While the Rest of Us Die.  Not exactly your light bedtime reading! Nancy Foust of SimplyInfo.org deciphers TEPCO’s first batch of robot...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Dr. Gordon Edwards is president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and one of of Canada’s best known independent experts on nuclear technology.  He speaks on the Chalk River proposed Nuclear Waste Dump, its history, and the many ways it’s a dangerous, wrong-headed idea.  The first of three segments with Dr....

Encore Presentation of Nuclear Hotseat #272:EXCLUSIVE! USS Reagan vs. TEPCO HearingAttorneys, Sailors + John Edwards On September 1, 2016, Nuclear Hotseat Producer/Host Libbe HaLevy attended the US 9th District Court Hearing on USS Reagan Sailors v. Tokyo Electric Power Company.  The sailors were on an humanitarian aid mission to Japan following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake...

Nuclear Hotseat: Downloaded in 122 Countries!(May, 2017 audit) This Week’s Featured Interview: Marshall Islands Sites: Nuclear Savage, the film: 465458 from adam horowitz on Vimeo.

Six years of weekly Nuclear Hotseat and still going strong!Please DONATE to support our work!  Listen Here: This Week’s Featured Interviews: Gerry Condon is a national board member of Veterans for Peace and President of the Golden Rule Committee.  He will be aboard the anti-nuclear Peace Ship Golden Rule when it sails down the California...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Watchdog/Bulldog for Beyond Nuclear, gives an all-encompassing vision of nuclear waste problems faced by not just the United States, but the world.  Included in his discussion are: Hanford Site Waste Isolation Pilot Plant San Onofre Yucca Mountain US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement Numnutz of the...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: Mari Inoue of Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World talks about the issues surrounding the US-Japan Nuclear Energy Cooperation Treaty – and why we really don’t want it to be renewed. LINK to information on the June 17, 2017 NYC protest of the proposed treaty renewal. Alicyn Gitlin coordinates the Campaign...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Alison Katz, a psychologist and sociologist heads Independent WHO, the international watchdog group drawing attention to the World Health Organization’s failure in its duty to protect those populations who are victims of radioactive contamination.  The group has held a vigil in front of WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, five days a...

This Week’s Featured Interviews San Onofre Update with two activists working on legal and public protest against storage of highly radioactive waste in 5/8″ steel canisters only 100 feet from the Pacific Ocean: Engineer Ray Lutz of Citizens Oversight Project Gary Headrick of San Clemente Green Ray Lutz with San Onofre protest kite SPECIAL FUKUSHIMA...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: Alice Slater, New York Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, was a delegate to the recently concluded four-day conference at the UN on banning nuclear weapons  and offers some stunning observations about the event and the hope it provides for the future. Suzi Snyder works with PAX, a peace group...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: A focus on Bequerel Awareness Day (Bqs are a measurement of radiation in food) and the impact on Japan’s food supply, especially in light of the impact on athletes and fans at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with events scheduled only 12-1/2 miles from the triple meltdown <!>.   Three, count them, three...

This week’s full-length Three Mile Island SPECIAL includes interviews with or information from: Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer for Fairewinds Enery Education.Watch a video of Arnie Gundersen speaking about the accident at the 40th Anniversary of the founding of Three Mile Island Alert.  Former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Bradford, who was at the NRC during the...

A reminder to help us celebrate our 300th episode with a donation – 300 pennies, 300 dimes, 300 dollars, 300 good wishes, or any percentage thereof! This Week’s Featured Interview: Bruce Gagnon, secretary/coordinator of Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, explains the dangers of nuclear deterrence, how the Pentagon plans to rob...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: SimplyInfo’s Fukushima 6th Anniversary Report explored and its sometimes shocking revelations explained by Nancy Foust, Communications manager & research team member SimplyInfo.org.  Verifiable, footnoted, solid info you can trust:  http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=16171 Nuclear Hotseat’s European correspondent Shaun McGee on Europe’s mystery  radation spikes.  Shaun’s done the multi-national research about the sources of this...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Dr. Helen Caldicott on why Fukushima will never be able to be cleaned up; the devastating health impacts of radiation; and why the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are a really really bad idea. Dr. Caldicott Links: HelenCaldicott.com Helen Caldicott Foundation Book – Nuclear Power is Not the Answer Book – Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Award-winning journalist Karl Grossman shares insights on the Indian Point Closure agreement, the hidden manipulation tactics of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators, and gives us examples of how activists have successfully scuttled nuclear industry plans. Karl Grossman’s Links: Article – “An Engineer’s Perspective on the Indian Point Shutdown“ FREE download...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Nancy Foust of Simply Info sorts out truth from confusion regarding last week’s major media echo chamber on Fukushima radiation levels.  Like a pebble can start an avalanche, a mis-translation can and did get blown up into a catastrophe.  Step away from the hysteria… LINKS to the Simply Info articles referenced:...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Tom Carpenter heads up Hanford Challenge, a watchdog group that works with whistleblowers and lawmakers to help create a future for Hanford that secures human health and safety, advances accountability, and promotes a sustainable environmental legacy.  Here, he explains exactly how much of a challenge that really is. The Missing Links:...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: 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...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Scott Portzline is the the Security Consultant to Three Mile Island Alert in Harrisburg, PA.  He fills us in on cyber security attacks, near-misses and lack of vigilance at US nuclear reactors. Alexei Yablakov Memorial: Russian scientist Dr. Alexei Yablakov brought together the work of dissident Soviet scientists and revealed to...

This Week’s Featured Interview: 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. LINK to...

This Week’s Featured Interview: 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.Dr. Busby’s article in The Ecologist: The “Genetics” Letter, the Euratom Suicide Clause, and the...

Nuclear Hotseat takes a look back at 2016 through the lens of Numnutz of the Week: Thrill as you hear the unbelievable truths about: Fukushima 2020 Tokyo Olympics (aka the NOlympics) Rocky Flats Radioactive waste shipments Nuclear industry propaganda, spin and lies Radioactive foods How to legally buy depleted uranium – makes a great gift...

This Week’s Featured Interview: 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...

Photo:  Mike Dailey, hanging Christmas Lights at his home in Spanish Village, where tests confirmed radioactive Thorium 230 contamination. © Copyright Christen Commuso and Humans of West Lake Landfill, used by permission This Week’s Featured Interview: Robbin Ellison Dailey and her husband Mike own the home in North St. Louis less than half a mile from...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Filmmaker Robbie Leppzer discusses his new film, POWER STRUGGLE, about the battle to close down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.  Excerpts from the film include some choice observations by nuclear engineer and Fairewinds Energy’s Arnie Gundersen. Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy EducationTestifying on the Vermont Yankee Shutdown hearings as...

This Week’s Featured Interview: 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...

This Week’s Featured Interview: 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...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: LaVerne Thraen is a veteran energy activist who has been opposing the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Generating Station since the 1980’s.  We 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...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Kumar Sundaram is a true firebrand in India’s ongoing fight against nuclear technology. He is a Research Consultant with the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, known as CNDP and had done extensive work in Japan. We caught up with him in the middle of a three month fellowship in Japan,...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Bruce Gagnon, secretary/coordinator of Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, is one of the hearts and minds behind the Keep Space for Peace! week activities, being held right now, October 1 through 8, around the world.  In this extended interview, Bruce talks about the nuclearization of space, the...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: Byron DeLear lives near the West Lake Landfill and has been passionately involved in its clean-up, as well as being active in clean energy issues as chairman and CEO of Energy Equity Funding. He is a columnist with Examiner.com and is currently running for state representative from the 40th District, which...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: 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,...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: BREAKING:  After last week’s latest SCRAM emergency shutdown at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Massachusetts, Diane Turco of Cape Downwinders and two others were arrested after delivering a letter demanding permanent shutdown to Mass. Governor Baker.  Nuclear Hotseat spoke with Diane immediately after her arraignment hearing.  Also in the news: ...

This Week’s EXCLUSIVE Interviews: Nuclear Hotseat Producer/Host Libbe HaLevy attended the US 9th District Court Hearing on USS Reagan Sailors v. Tokyo Electric Power Company.  The sailors were on an humanitarian aid mission to Japan following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which caused the Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdowns.  TEPCO never informed the US Navy...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Tim Deere-Jones is an independent marine pollution consultant and a specialist in the behavior and fate of marine pollutants in ocean, coastal and estuarine environments. He explains how radiation in the ocean from Fukushima and the UK’s Sellafield nuclear facility have impacted food safety at tremendous distances, as far away as...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: Lou Ricciuti has been a nuclear researcher, writer and speaker for nearly 20 years on the radioactive waste-stream generated by Niagara Falls’ vast involvement in the earliest days of the Atomic Age. Veteran anti-nuclear activist Myla Reson reminds us of the leaked report from Nuclear Regulator Commission’s Dr. Michael Peck saying...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Dr. Christopher Busby is a British nuclear scientist who has been active, effective, visible and often controversial expert witness on radiation’s impact on health. We discuss his very different role in the recent lawsuit in the UK regarding British  veterans exposed to nuclear radiation while in the military and suing to...

This Week’s Featured Interviews: When is the Environmental Protection Agency’s Consent-Based Siting to decide the location of the next U.S. radioactive nuclear waste repository NOT “Consent-based?”  Two activists at ground zero of this domestic nuclear war tell all: Karen Hadden, Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development, or SEED Coalition, headquartered in Austin,...

This Week’s Featured Interview: Greg Palast is an investigative reporter whose news-breaking stories appear on BBC Television, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Rolling Stone Magazine, and is author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Armed Madhouse and the highly acclaimed Vultures’ Picnic, which is cited...

BREAKING:  Nuclear Hotseat Producer/Host Libbe HaLevy will be interviewed by John B. Wells for Caravan to Midnight, airing Friday, July 8, 2016, available for download thereafter for a small fee. This Week’s Featured Interview: Dr. Gordon Edwards is president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and one of Canada‘s best known independent experts on...

BREAKING:  CA Lands Commission Bails on Responsibility, Won’t Hold PG&E Responsible forDiablo Canyon Environmental Impact ReportThis story hit as production was almost concluded; details in the coming weeks.  Enjoy listening to what was a brief moment of optimism. This Week’s Featured Interviews: Linda Seeley of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace about what was then...