In Memoriam: Dr. Jeffrey Patterson, President, PSR

Dr. Jeffrey PattersonIt is with heavy heart, deep sadness and sense of loss, that Beyond Nuclear pays tribute to Dr. Jeffrey Patterson at the time of his unexpected death due to a heart attack on the night of January 23. Dr. Patterson had long served -- at the local and national levels -- as a leader of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the U.S. affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

PSR has issued a press release about Dr. Patterson's sudden passing, and the tremendous accomplishments of his lifetime of public service. Please also see a short bio on Dr. Patterson, as well as the PSR web post about him. The online PSR press release includes photos of Jeff in action.

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health -- where Dr. Patterson had served for many decades -- has also posted a tribute.

So too did Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) of Illinois. NEIS included a link to Dr. Patterson's address at the 2012 "Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High" conference in Chicago (beginning at about the 56:00 minute mark), which Beyond Nuclear co-sponsored along with NEIS and FOE. In fact, Dr. Patterson also led a workshop at the June 2010 radioactive waste conference held at Loyola University in Chicago, co-sponsored by Beyond Nuclear, NEIS, NIRS, and other groups.

Beyond Nuclear had been in discussions with Dr. Patterson since last summer about him conducting a speaking tour across MI. Numerous presentations had been scheduled between February 12th and February 17th, to feature Dr. Patterson speaking on "Nuclear Power: What You Need to Know about Price, Pollution and Proliferation."

The Cap Times of Madison, WI -- Jeff's home town -- wrote in his memory: "We can imagine no better tribute to this fine man than to rededicate ourselves to the work of ridding the world of nuclear weapons, a cause to which he contributed so profoundly."

Along those lines, in Dr. Patterson's honor -- as he would have wanted -- his speaking tour will proceed. PSR national board member Alfred Meyer, a close friend and colleague of Jeff, will stand in to deliver Dr. Patterson's presentation, to carry forward his valuable work.

Volunteers Crowdsource Radiation Monitoring to Map Potential Risk on Every Street in Japan

As reported by Democracy Now! on the Pacifica Radio Network:

Safecast is a network of volunteers who came together to map radiation levels throughout Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011. They soon realized radiation readings varied widely, with some areas close to the disaster facing light contamination, depending on wind and geography, while others much further away showed higher readings. Safecast volunteers use Geiger counters and open-source software to measure the radiation, and then post the data online for anyone to access. Broadcasting from Tokyo, we are joined by Pieter Franken, co-founder of Safecast. "The first trip we made into Fukushima, it was an eye-opener. First of all, the radiation levels we encountered were way higher than what we had seen on television," Franken says. "We decided to focus on measuring every single street as our goal in Safecast, so for the last three years we have been doing that, and this month we are passing the 15 millionth location we have measured, and basically every street in Japan has been at least measured once, if not many, many more times."

Watch Amy Goodman, DemocracyNow! reporting from Japan on Fukushima

Mayor of Town That Hosted Fukushima Nuclear Plant Says He Was Told: “No Accident Could Ever Happen”

Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of the town of FutabaAmy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! on Pacifica Radio, reports from Tokyo:

'We speak with Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of the town of Futaba where part of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is located. The entire town was rendered uninhabitable by the nuclear disaster. We ask him what went through his mind after the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, 2011. "It was a huge surprise, and at the time I was just hoping nothing that had happened at the nuclear power plant. However, unfortunately there was in fact an accident there," Idogawa recalls. He made a decision to evacuate his town before the Japanese government told people to leave. "If I had made that decision even three hours earlier, I would have been able to prevent so many people from being exposed to radiation." For years he encouraged nuclear power development in the area; now he has become a vocal critic. He explains that the government and the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company, always told him, "’Don’t worry, Mayor. No accident could ever happen.’ Because this promise was betrayed, this is why I became anti-nuclear." '

On Hiroshima Day, 2010, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps visited Futaba and Okuma, the host towns of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As part of a nation-wide speaking tour organized by Green Action of Japan, Kevin met with the vice mayor of Futaba, and the mayor of Okuma. Kevin also spoke to a community meeting of citizens concerned about the risks at the nearby six atomic reactors. They wanted to learn about leaks of radioactivity from high-level radioactive waste storage pools in the U.S. The meetings, event, and speaking tour were part of a last gasp effort to prevent the loading of "Pluthermal" (mixed oxide plutonium, or MOX) nuclear fuel into reactors across Japan. However, just the next month, in September 2010, pluthermal was loaded by Tokyo Electric Power Company into Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3. It was just six months before the nuclear catastrophe began. Unit 3 suffered the largest exlosion of all, after its reactor melted down.

Chris Williams of VCAN & VYDA, "Resisting Entergy, Rogue Nuclear Corporation," Palisades, MI, Thurs., Jan. 16th

Yard signs created by Michigan Safe Energy Future--Kalamazoo Chapter

Entergy Nuclear: Resisting a Rogue Corporation and its Radioactive Risks

A presentation by Chris Williams of Vermont Citizens Action Network as well as Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance

Thursday, January 16, 2014, 6:30 to 9:00 PM,

Lake Michigan College,

125 Veterans Blvd., Room 141

South Haven, MI 49090

(For directions to campus, location of parking, etc.,
see: http://www.lakemichigancollege.edu/SH)

Come learn about Entergy Nuclear’s dirty dozen atomic reactors, including the problem-plagued Palisades near South Haven. Chris Williams is a leader of the ongoing, highly successful grassroots campaign to shutdown Entergy's dangerously degraded Vermont Yankee atomic reactor (a Fukushima Daiichi twin design). Having stopped proposed new reactors in Indiana during his 25 years of service as Executive Director of Citizen Action Coalition, he will show how community organizing can stop dirty, dangerous, and expensive atomic reactors, and replace them with efficiency and renewables like wind and solar.

Chris Williams, is a long time sustainable energy policy activist. He is currently organizer for the Vermont Citizens Action Network, a grassroots organization working to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear station and replace it with sustainable energy generation. Williams has a long professional history working with public interest organizations. For 25 years he was the executive director for Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, a not for profit consumer and environmental advocacy organization. CAC conducts extensive grassroots public education campaigns concerning, public utility regulation, energy policy, environmental policy, and the preservation of family farms.

Co-sponsored by Michigan Safe Energy Future (http://michigansafeenergyfuture.com),
Beyond Nuclear (www.beyondnuclear.org),
and Don’t Waste Michigan (http://dwmi.homestead.com).

For more info, contact Bette Pierman, Michigan Safe Energy Future, (269) 369-3993 or

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216

[See the event flier here]