Beyond Nuclear on Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture"

Ever since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe began on March 11, 2011, Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture" television news program has featured Beyond Nuclear staff on a regular, ongoing basis to provide updates and analysis of the situation in Japan, and its implications for the U.S. On December 27th, Thom interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on the recent return to political power of the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party, which (during its previous reign from 1955-2009) oversaw the establishment of the collusion between government, regulator, and industry which Japan's own parliament reported was the root cause of the triple reactor meltdown. Thom and Kevin also discussed the potential risk that vast amounts of flotsam and jetsam from the Japanese tsunami, now arriving on the west coast of North America, could be radioactive.

Of course, we have such collusion in spades here as well. NRC and elected official collusion with the nuclear power industry has allowed 23 GE BWR Mark Is (identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4) and 8 very similarly designed Mark IIs to continue operating in the U.S.