Thom Hartmann quotes Beyond Nuclear on need to "Freeze Our Fukushimas!"

On his radio show, Thom Hartmann quoted Beyond Nuclear on the 23 identical twins to Fukushima Daiichi (General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors) operating in the U.S., and the additional 8 similarly designed reactors across this country (Mark IIs). Beyond Nuclear staff are frequent guests on Thom's radio and television programs.

Hartmann referred to an exposé by NBC News on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's numerous cover-ups in the initial days of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, unearthed via the Freedom of Information Act. The exposé, entitled "U.S. Nuclear Agency Hid Concerns, Hailed Safety Record as Fukushima Melted," by investigative reporter Bill Dedman, was published on the eve of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe's three-year mark.

Here is Thom Hartmann's observations, from the transcript:

Thom Hartmann here - on the best of the rest of....science & green news.....

You need to know this. Last week marked the third anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. And, recently released documents show that since then, our nuclear regulators have been playing down the risk of a similar incident happening in the U.S. Emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Request show that the higher-ups at the Nuclear Regulatory Agency told staff to hide information from reporters, to keep quiet about NRC scientists studying risk at US plants, and to change the subject when media asked what a worst-case scenario in our country could look like. At the very same time they were down-playing the risk to Americans, experts at the agency were questioning U.S. safety standards and feverishly working to determine if the NRC needed to implement new rules for nuclear plants in our nation. According to nuclear experts, rules aren't enough to prevent a disaster like Fukushima from happening in the U.S. Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear pointed out that there are 23 nuclear plants in our nation that have exact replicas of the nuclear reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, and eight other reactors are similarly designed. These plants, and many others, won't suddenly be safe if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission institutes a few weak regulations. Our regulators and lawmakers seemed to have learned nothing from Fukushima except how to hide the risk of a similar disaster. It's time that regulators own up to the real dangers of nuclear energy, and it's time that Americans stand up and say "No Nukes."