"Atomic States of America" documentary screening at film festivals

9.14 Picture's "The Atomic States of America," a documentary film about nuclear power in the U.S. and beyond, is touring film festivals, such as the Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey, "home" of Oyster Creek, the oldest operating atomic reactor in the country, and only 50 miles from Entergy Nuclear's Indian Point twin reactors near New York City.

Earlier this year, it was featured at Sundance, leading to a Democracy Now! interview by host Amy Goodman of filmmaker Sheena Joyce, as well as writer Kelly McMasters. McMasters' book, Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town, originally inspired the filmmakers. The Democracy Now! interview shows excerpts featuring the work of Eric Epstein of Three Mile Island Alert. Here is the description posted at the "Atomic States of America's" Facebook page:

"In 2010, the United States announced the first new nuclear power plant construction in over 32 years. The “Nuclear Renaissance” was born, and America's long-stalled expansion of nuclear energy was infused with new life. 

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan and caused chaos at the Fukushima Dai'ichi Power Plant. The accident in Japan sent ripples all the way to the US, and suddenly the fierce debate over the safety and viability of nuclear power was back in the public consciousness. 

The new documentary from Sheena Joyce and Don Argott, THE ATOMIC STATES OF AMERICA, takes the viewer on a journey to reactor communities around the country, and seeks to explore the truths and myths of nuclear power. From the gates of Three Mile Island, to the cooling ponds of Braidwood, IL, this film introduces the viewer to people who have been on the front lines of this issue for decades. Begun more than a year before the disaster in Japan, the deeply investigated documentary gains a unique before and after perspective, and includes interviews with: Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors, community advocates, investigative journalists, renowned physicists, nuclear engineers, and former government leaders. As the nation stands at the crossroads of the Nuclear Renaissance, The Atomic States of America seeks to inspire an honest dialog about whether or not man can responsibly split the atom."

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Former Japanese PM Kan: "the best way to make nuclear plants safe is not to rely on them, but rather to get rid of them”

Former Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, testifies against nuclear power before parliamentary panel investigating the Fukushima Daiichi catastropheIn an article entitled "Japan's Former Leader Condemns Nuclear Power," the New York Times reported on May 28th about the three-hour testimony of Japan's former Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, before a Japanese parliamentary investigation into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. Kan was serving during the first five months of the catastrophe, from 3/11/11 to August, when he resigned. Kan warned that the politically and economically powerful "nuclear village" in industry, government, and academia has shown "no remorse" for the catastrophe, as it pushes to re-start Japan's 50 remaining atomic reactors despite widespread grassroots opposition. Kan pointed out that “Gorbachev said in his memoirs that the Chernobyl accident exposed the sicknesses of the Soviet system. The Fukushima accident did the same for Japan.” Kan shared that he feared a worst case scenario cascade (or in the words of Kan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, now Minister of Trade, Industry, and Economy, Edano, "demonic chain reaction") of reactor meltdowns and high-level radioactive waste pool fires, which could have caused the “release into the air and sea many times, no, many dozens of times, many hundreds of times the radiation released by Chernobyl,” which would have forced the evacuation of 30 million people from Tokyo, leading to “a collapse of the nation’s ability to function.” Kan concluded “It is impossible to ensure safety sufficiently to prevent the risk of a national collapse. Experiencing the accident convinced me that the best way to make nuclear plants safe is not to rely on them, but rather to get rid of them.”

An AFP article, carried by Japan Today, reports that Kan compared the "nuclear village" in Japan to the imperial militarism that plunged Japan into World War II. Kan is quoted as saying “The nuclear accident was caused by a nuclear plant which operated as national policy...I believe the biggest portion of blame lies with the state...Before the war, the military came to have a grip on actual political power… Similarly, plant operator TEPCO and FEPC (Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan) held sway over the nation’s nuclear administration over the past 40 years...They ousted experts, politicians and bureaucrats critical of nuclear energy from the mainstream. Many others they sidelined so that they could maintain the status quo.”

Inviting atomic catastrophe as NRC looks to run reactors for 80 years

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be holding a meeting this week to consider having nuclear power plants run 80 years - although they were never seen as running for more than 40 years because of radioactivity embrittling metal parts and otherwise causing safety problems. But, as Beyond Nuclear board member, Karl Grossman writes, on the Huffington Post and elsewhere this week, "By extending the operating licenses of nuclear plants, the NRC is inviting catastrophe. It's asking for it. The gargantuan problem is that the "it" is atomic catastrophe which, as the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster and last year's Fukushima catastrophe have demonstrated, impacts on huge numbers of people and other forms of life."

Kay Drey: How "Routine Emissions" from Nuclear Power Plants Slowly Poison Neighboring Communities

Kay Drey (photo by Jo Mannies, St. Louis Beacon)On May 25th, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Beyond Nuclear's Founding President, interviewed Kay Drey, a Beyond Nuclear board member, on her weekly radio program If You Love This Planet. Kay is also a board member of the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center. For nearly 40 years, Kay has researched the dangers of nuclear energy and nuclear waste, and advocated for the closure of nuclear plants and other uranium facilities. She was quite active in civil rights work before focusing on nuclear power. Kay and Dr. Caldicott discuss the widespread public health implications of so-called routine radioactive releases from nuclear power stations, in which many hazardous gases and fission byproducts are emitted during daily operations. Kay refers to a Beyond Nuclear pamphlet, Dirty, Dangerous, and Expensive: The Verdict Is In About Nuclear Power. Another Beyond Nuclear pamphlet, Routine Radioactive Releases from Nuclear Power Plants in the United States: What Are the Dangers?, provides more information on the main subject of Helen and Kay's conversation, as well as a listing of surface waters into which radioactively contaminated liquid wastes are being discharged. For more information, read Dr. Caldicott’s book Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, which includes information from Kay’s studies.

The NRC's Latest Crazy Idea: An 80-Year License to Kill?

Indian Point, NY's steam generator tube rupture in Feb. 2000, and Davis-Besse's Hole-in-the-Head reactor lid corrosion in 2002 were examples of "break-down phase" accidentsInvestigative journalist Karl Grossman, who has been exposing the nuclear industry's cover ups for decades (Karl's first book, published in 1980, was entitled Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power) published an article today at Counterpunch entitled "The NRC's Latest Crazy Idea: An 80-Year License to Kill?" Since the year 2000, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has rubberstamped 73 license extensions for 20 additional years of operations at U.S. atomic reactors, on top of the original 40 year licenses. 13 additional atomic reactors are now lining up, hoping to get their 20 year extensions rubberstamped. But Beyond Nuclear is helping lead environmental coalitions against the Seabrook, NH and Davis-Besse, OH rubberstamps; Natural Resources Defense Council is challenging the Limerick, PA applications; and Missouri Coalition for the Environment is opposing the Callaway, MO license extension. Most of the remaining 20 atomic reactors in the U.S. also plan on applying for 20 year license extensions in the years ahead.

In addition, the NRC has rubberstamped scores of "power uprates" (with many more applied for), allowing atomic reactors to generate more electricity, in order to boost profits, by running hotter and harder than they were originally designed to operate.

But the insatiable greed and technical arrogance of the nuclear establishment knows no bounds. On Thursday, NRC will sit down with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy, as well as the nuclear industry's Electric Power Research Institute, to consider allowing atomic reactors to split atoms for 80 years, despite the radioactive bullets -- "break down phase" risks -- we have already been dodging by the skin of our teeth for many years (see Dave Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists "Bathtub Curve of Nuclear Accidents," above left; the title refers to the shape of the curve, which shows that as atomic reactors age, the risk of disasters increases).

Karl, a Beyond Nuclear board member, quotes Bob Alvarez of the Institute for Policy Studies: “The idea of keeping these reactors going for 80 years is crazy! To double the design life of these plants—which operate under high-pressure, high heat conditions and are subject to radiation fatigue—is an example of out-of-control hubris, of believing your own lies.”