8/5/20: Beyond Nuclear, and Ian Zabarte, on Sputnik Radio's "Loud & Clear"

News, #hibakusha, #hiroshima, #hiroshimaanniversary, #indianland, #nagasaki, #nagasakianniversary, #nevadatestsite, #nuclearenergy, #nucleartesting, #nuclearweapons, #shoshone, #weaponstesting, #yuccamountain

Wednesday’s regular segment, Beyond Nuclear, is about nuclear issues, including weapons, energy, waste, and the future of nuclear technology in the United States. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at the organization Beyond Nuclear, Sputnik news analyst and producer Nicole Roussell, and special guest Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Indians, the secretary of the Native Community Action Council, at NativeCommunityActionCouncil.org, and a leading voice nationally against the Yucca Mountain dump, join the show.

Towards the end of the show, Kevin speaks about three Native American leaders: Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone spiritual leader; Grace Thorpe, co-founder of National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans (NECONA); and Al Puckett, Cherokee, a nuclear whistleblower at the Paducah (Uranium Enrichment) Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky, and a founder of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability member group, Coalition for Health Concern. Thorpe's Sauk and Fox Reservation in Oklahoma was targeted for a high-level radioactive waste dump, which she put a stop to, then helped other targeted reservation communities do the same; Puckett saw nuclear wrongdoing on the job, and spoke out, at great personal cost. When Kevin asked them how they became anti-nuclear, both responded with single word answers: "Nagasaki." They were both deployed to Nagasaki shortly after the atomic bombing, as U.S. service members in World War II.

Listen to the audio recording, here.

The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons

This week we mark 75 years since the tragic and unnecessary atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Beyond Nuclear and the Nuclear Free Takoma Park Committee are pleased to let you know that you can now see a film free online about the decades-long anti-nuclear activism that has pushed to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth. 

What: The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons, a 56-minute documentary about efforts to bring a nuclear weapon ban treaty into international law and the role of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, told through the voices of leading activists from several different organizations and countries and the president of the negotiating conference.

When: Anytime. Now free to view on YouTube.

Link: https://youtu.be/qzWyYuYLxlM 

The story: Told through a brief history of the bomb and a deep look at the nuclear abolition movement, the film considers the humanitarian initiative that successfully challenged the dominant security narrative, and the historic steps taken since 2010 to turn the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons from a dream into a reality. The film also shows what can be done by anyone to help bring the treaty into force (only 10 ratifications are now still needed to achieve this) and to stigmatize nuclear weapons until they are finally eradicated.

Speak out against environmentally unjust nuke waste dumps & Mobile Chernobyls!

See Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website section, for sample comments you can use to write your own for submission to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by the Sept. 22nd (Holtec/ELEA, NM) and Nov. 3rd (ISP/WCS, TX) deadlines.

Holtec International/Eddy Lea Energy Alliance proposes a consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) for up to 173,600 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel, in southeastern New Mexico -- a largley Hispanic area, near the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation.

Interim Storage Partners/Waste Control Specialists, just 40 miles away from Holtec's Laguna Gatuna, NM, site, proposes another CISF, for 40,000 MT of highly radioactive waste, in Andrews County, West Texas, on the NM border at Eunice.

In addition to the environmental injustice of the site selection alone, there is the EJ burden of the high-risk, highly radioactive waste shipments through most states -- Mobile Chernobyls, Dirty Bombs on Wheels, Floating Fukushimas, Three Mile Islands in Transport, Mobile X-ray Machines That Can't Be Turned Off. As Mustafa Ali, former head of EJ at US EPA, and now head of EJ at National Wildlife Federation, has pointed out, the road, rail, and waterway shipments of highly radioactive waste themselves will disproportionately harm low income and/or people of color communities who live along those routes.

Also see how to urge your Members of Congress (your U.S. Rep., and both your U.S. Senators) to demand of NRC that in-person public comment meetings be held in your state/congressional district, post-pandemic, once safe to do so.

Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Japan, atomic bombings 75th annual commemoration events, across the U.S. and overseas, beginning tomorrow, and continuing through August 9th

Tomorrow, August 5th, commemorations of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings by the United States, 75 years ago, will begin in earnest, and will continue through August 9th. Beyond Nuclear has posted a long listing of these events at our NUCLEAR WEAPONS website section. They are arranged chronologically backwards, in the order in which we learned of the events. Most of these events are online, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, certain events are in-person, with appropriate social distancing and required mask wearing precautions.  

To join a major national coalition's virtual commemoration events on August 6th beginning at 11am Eastern, and August 9th beginning at 2pm Eastern, visit: <hiroshimanagasak75.org>. These events will be several hours long.

 

Please visit Beyond Nuclear's NUCLEAR WEAPONS website section, to find Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations you too can attend, online (or even in-person, at certain places), over the course of the next several days. Be sure to scroll back to at least the July 31st postings, as there are a large number of events taking place. All told, we have posted about 30 separate announcements, from across the U.S., from Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and from elsewhere around the world, so keep scrolling down/back, to see your options for commemorations you can take part in.

The Resistible Rise of Nuclear Gangsters…and Their Downfall

Criminal nuclear scandals involving financial boons to the economically collapsing nuclear power industry rocked three states last week. Beyond Nuclear reported on the most dramatic of the three -- in Ohio -- on Beyond Nuclear International. This week, we have a front-page story on Counterpunch detailing all three schemes.  The Counterpunch article begins:

It would be tempting to describe last week’s nuclear scandals — in three states — as something out of the Wild West. But Al Capone’s Chicago would be a more accurate analogy.

While no actual shots were fired, some pretty powerful metaphorical ones were, warnings that engaging in criminal racketeering and fraud to fleece ratepayers over failing nuclear plants would not go unpunished.

Over the course of just a single week, politicians, lobbyists and nuclear industry executives in Illinois, Ohio and South Carolina were reeled in and, in some cases, charged with high crimes for covering up illegal schemes that bought power, votes, legislation and huge bailouts for foundering nuclear power plants while squeezing ratepayers for the bill. Read the full story. (Photo of Davis-Besse reactor, OH/Wikipedia)