Dave Martin, Canadian anti-nuclear campaigner, 1954-2011

Dave laughing while training the next generation in non-violent environmental activism. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace Canada."He left behind a lot of people who loved him" are the concluding words of Elizabeth May, head of the Green Party of Canada and a Member of Parliament, in a Greenpeace tribute to the life of Dave Martin, one of Canada's top anti-nuclear activists of the past generation. Dave passed on this morning after a four year battle with prostate cancer. Greenpeace's memorial also pays tribute to the life and work of Irene Kock, Dave's partner in life as well as anti-nuclear activism, who tragically died in a car accident in 2001.

Bruce Cox, the Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada, where Dave has worked since 2004, said "Dave was our Climate and Energy Coordinator and later Energy Policy Analyst until he took his sick leave. He was an extraordinary individual that made our province, and indeed our country, a better place to live. More importantly his good nature, warm laugh and helping hand made many of us step a little lighter and shine a little brighter just for knowing him."

Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility said "Dave was an indomitable campaigner of unquenchable passion, who taught himself how to speak the language of the economist, the politician and the bureaucrat to communicate more effectively his unwavering perception that nuclear energy is a huge mistake. And his effectiveness was second to none. He and Irene Kock did outstanding work at a time when the odds seemed truly impossible; they were an inspiration to all who knew them. Since Irene's passing Dave has been the fountainhead of nuclear activism within Greenpeace and in the heart of the nuclear beast -- Ontario -- along with his tremendous colleague Shawn-Patrick Stensil. He will be sorely missed but joyously remembered."

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps has many such joyous memories of Dave and Irene. They worked and played together, as friends and colleagues, in a common campaign for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes since the mid-1990s. Dave and Irene's legacy will live on. As but one of countless examples, the "Great Lakes Nuclear Hot Spots" map they created in 1990 is still commonly used by anti-nuclear activists throughout the Great Lakes basin.

Update on September 12, 2011 by admin

A website has been set up for friends and colleagues to share their memories and tributes to Dave at http://rememberingdavemartin.ca/

Update on September 17, 2011 by admin

NOW Magazine in Toronto has published a tribute, entitled "Remembering Dave Martin, Greenpeace icon." Gordon Edwards of Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility has posted a sampling of Dave's (and Irene Kock's) prolific writings at the CCNR website.

Cancellation of Yucca dump one major step closer to finalized

Western face of Yucca Mountain, as viewed through the frame of a Western Shoshone Indian ceremonial sweat lodge, 2004. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova.As reported by KTVN of Reno, Nevada, today the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- by the narrowest of margins -- approved an order mandating that its Atomic Safety and Licensing Board conclude and close out all Yucca Mountain repository proceedings by the end of the fiscal year -- September 30, 2011. This is a major victory for opponents of the Yucca dump, as celebrated by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat-Nevada), who has devoted his quarter century long Senate career to blocking the dump. Yucca Mountain, a sacred site belonging to the Western Shoshone Indian Nation as acknowledged by the Treaty of Ruby Valley, signed by the U.S. government in 1863, has been the sole target of the nuclear establishment for a national high-level radioactive waste dump since the "Screw Nevada" bill of 1987. More than $10 billion of ratepayer and taxpayer money has been wasted on the project.

Update on September 12, 2011 by admin

As the title implies, E&E's article "Nuclear waste: Confusion reigns in wake of deadlocked NRC's Yucca vote," paints a much more murky picture of what Friday's 2-2 split decision amongst the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners means for Yucca's future. Yucca dump proponents, from NRC Commissioner Ostendorff to U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and the Nuclear Energy Institute, view the tied NRC vote as a new lease on life for the dump, while Senate Majority Leader Reid portrays it as yet another nail in the dump's coffin lid.

"Knocking on the Devil's Door: Our Deadly Nuclear Legacy"

A screening of Gary Null's new documentary, "Knocking on the Devil's Door: Our Deadly Nuclear Legacy," will take place on Sept. 21st at the Ethical Culture Society in New York City. Beyond Nuclear staffpersons Kevin Kamps and Cindy Folkers appear in the documentary, as does board member Karl Grossman and founding president Helen Caldicott. Karl will speak on the panel at the Sept. 21st screening, alongside Dr. Vandana Shiva, Harvey Wasserman, Greg Palast, and the Sato family from Fukushima Prefecture in Japan, who are leading grassroots efforts to demand the Japanese federal government fund a much larger evacuation given the extensive and severe Fukushima Daiichi radioactive fallout. Beyond Nuclear will have an information table at the event. See www.knockingonthedevilsdoor.com for more information about the documentary and its upcoming screening in New York City.

To obtain a free copy of the DVD, see below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2011

Gary Null Productions

2307 Broadway, New York, NY 10024

Contact:
Richard Gale  646-926-5436 Rgale@garynull.com
Valerie Van Cleeve 646-926-5441 Valerie@garynull.com

www.knockingonthedevilsdoor.com

“Knocking on the Devil’s Door”
Free Offer for New Documentary About the Deadly Legacy of Nuclear Power
 
Following the catastrophe of the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, Dr. Gary Null, an award-winning film director and public radio talk show host, began production for a new documentary to address the history and disasters of nuclear power, the health risks of low level radiation, and the rampant corruption and deception employed by the corporate energy complex to keep nuclear power a favorite source of energy in the halls of Washington.
 
His new documentary, Knocking on the Devil’s Door: Our Deadly Nuclear Legacy, launched its theater premiers in New York and Los Angeles on August 5-11, 2011. Due to the overwhelming positive response and the film’s potential to mobilize anti-nuclear projects to educate the public, legislators and media, it is being offered free to anti-nuclear and environmental organizations, journalists, community groups, and legislators. Dr. Null and his team hope organizations will take advantage of this opportunity to utilize the information and power of this documentary to galvanize opposition to the relicensing of nuclear reactors and to call an end to nuclear power.
 
To receive a free copy of Knocking on the Devil’s Door, please visit this secure page (only accessible via invitation) to request a DVD copy.
 
The film’s trailer can also be viewed at www.knockingonthedevilsdoor.com

Please click here for a film description.

OPPD submits post-flooding recovery plan to NRC for Ft. Calhoun

Complete with a three minute PR video focused on the need to re-paint lines for parking lot spaces on asphalt, and to replace dead trees in landscaping long underwater on the historically flooded Missouri River, Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) has submitted a 113 page "Post-Flooding Recovery Plan" to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Ironically, the video does not show the vital areas of the plant, such as the reactor containment building, or auxiliary building housing safety and cooling systems, which at points in the past couple months -- like when its AquaDam was punctured by a piece of heavy machinery -- have been surrounded by waist-deep flood waters (see photo, left) literally lapping at their doors. OPPD claims "plant operations remain focused on providing reliable electricity," not seeming to notice the irony of dubbing Ft. Calhoun "reliable" when it has been shut down for four months due to flood risks. OPPD also speaks of "assuring the health and safety of the public and employees," when a mere 6 feet of margin existed between the floodwaters and an inability to continue provided cooling to vital safety systems -- a margin that could have been instantly erased if any one of a half dozen severely strained dams upstream had failed.

Tepco nows says that Unit 3 blew up Unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi

The Mainichi Daily News now reports that Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) is asserting that hydrogen gas from the Unit 3 meltdown(s), rather than being vented out the stack shared with Unit 4, flowed instead into the Unit 4 secondary containment reactor building, blowing it up. So much for the "hardened vent" retrofits constituting a "safety improvement" on the General Electric Boiling Water Reactor Mark 1 containment system! If this is truly what caused the "mysterious" Unit 4 explosion, then not only did the "hardened vents" fail to prevent meltdowns and containment failures at Units 1, 2, and 3, but they also caused a large explosion in Unit 4 -- a reactor that had been de-fueled, and was not operating -- which now risks the release of large-scale amounts of hazardous radioactivity directly into the environment if its high-level radioactive waste storage pool boils dry, allowing the irradiated nuclear fuel within to catch on fire.