Pete Seeger has them singing along, wherever he is

American folk icon Pete Seeger passed away on January 27, 2014 at 94 years old.

Pete was more than America’s beloved folklorist and singer, he was a nonviolent troubadour waging world peace and justice, a balladeer to save the environment for future generations and a defender of labor from greedy bosses. He put his body and his melodic voice on the same line his songs proclaimed whether it was in the hobo jungle, the vineyard, on the picket line, union hall or concert hall.  Now, as he did on solid ground, Pete has that heavenly choir already singing along in three-part harmony.

We will remember Pete and his banjo as part of the clarion call for a halt to nuclear power on the construction site of New Hampshire’s Seabrook nuclear power plant in 1978 in a gathering of 20,000 protesters before the meltdowns at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. He persisted for decades calling for the now nearer closing of New York’s Indian Point nuke on the shore of his cherished Hudson River.

Pete had his banjo emblazoned with the motto “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” It was this love of all life and freedom that taught us, inspired us with “‘do-so’ is more important that ‘say-so,’” often with a forgotten verse from a popular folk song. 

One such verse, from “This Land is Your Land” belongs evermore to Pete, now:

“Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.”

So long, Pete, it’s been good to know you.  We miss you.

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.