Radioactive dog bowls sold at Chicago & other Illinois Petco Stores

As reported by Treehugger and the Herald-News, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) has reported the discovery of radioactive stainless steel dog bowls at a Petco store in Chicago. It is feared that several radioactively contaminated bowls had been sold. IEMA and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are supposedly trying to track down those purchased bowls, and IEMA warns shoppers who have purchased stainless steel dog bowls at IL Petcos to contact the store where they purchased the bowl as a precaution. The bowls are reportedly contaminated with radioactive Cobalt-60. Although IEMA was quick to trot out the deceptive "no immediate health risk" line (used by nuclear establishment spokespeople during the Three Mile Island meltdown, as documented by Rosalie Bertell, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe, etc.), as syndicated pet columnist Steve Dale asks, what about pets which have eaten or drank from the contaminated bowls?! Also, no information has been provided on the source of the contamination. However, the nuclear power industry and its friends in government have long attempted to "de-regulate" "low-level" radioactive wastes, which they consider "below regulatory concern." These radioactive wastes, such as radioactive metals, can then be "recycled" into consumer items -- such as dog bowls, or anything made of metal.

Thom Hartmann interviews Paul Gunter & Kevin Kamps on "Beyond Fukushima: When Will We Learn?"

As part of "The Big Picture: Conversations with Great Minds," Thom Hartmann interviewed Paul and Kevin at length about the situation at Fukushima Daiichi, as the first atomic reactors are restarted in Japan after the nuclear catastrophe began on 3/11/11, and what it means for the United States: Part 1; Part 2.

An excellent, sad and important film: Nuclear Refugees, the People of Iitate village, Japan after Fukushima

Please see filmmaker Ian Thomas Ash's website for more on post-Fukushima Japan and the impact on lives there.

Obama DOE gave Southern Nuclear "sweetheart deal" on Vogtle 3 & 4 loan guarantees

"Burning Money" image by Gene Case, Avenging AngelsThe Inter Press Service has reported that President Barack Obama's U.S. Department of Energy has offered Southern Company a "sweetheart deal" on federal nuclear loan guarantees for the Plant Vogtle Units 3 & 4 proposed new atomic reactors: a 0.5 to 1.5% credit subsidy fee, lower than college students pay on their federal student loans. These facts came to light thanks to a courtroom victory by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), which won a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ruling from a federal judge who ordered DOE to divulge the terms of the first and only federal taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantee yet conditionally awarded.

Remarkably, Southern Co. has been asked for a mere $17 to $52 million of "skin in the game," in exchange for $8.3 billion in federal taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantees for Vogtle Units 3 & 4 -- proposed Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000s (1,100 Megawatt-electric "Advanced Passive" pressurized water reactors). If Southern and its partners default on their loan repayments, the federal taxpayer will be left holding the bag. To make matters worse, taxpayers are not only guaranteeing the loans, they are also providing the loans. The source of the loans, the U.S. Finance Bank, is federal taxpayer funded. Despite the nuclear loan guarantees, private investment banks have not touched the financially risky project. More.

Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud receives national Sierra Club Award

This quilt Judy is admiring was created by textile artist Margaret Gregg of Virginia, and was given to her on May 4th by the Sierra Club "No Nukes Activist Team" in honor of her 50 years of anti-nuclear leadership. It reads "JUDITH: PROTECTING LIFE FOREVER."Leon Glicenstein, a life-long friend and supporter of Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud, has written an article for the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter's Summer 2012 newsletter The Sylvanian about the national Sierra Club and the Sierra Club "No Nukes Activist Team" recognition ceremony, held May 4th in Takoma Park, Maryland, honoring Judy's half-century of anti-nuclear leadership not only locally, regionally, and nationally, but even globally. Judy is a founding board member of Beyond Nuclear. Included in Leon's article is a partial list of anti-nuclear victories Judy helped win in her home state of Pennsylvania alone.

Beyond Nuclear posted a tribute to Judy shortly after the ceremony, which includes more photos of the presentation of her quilt (see photo, left), as well as links to writings by Judy, such as her brief history of the Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Pollution, which she founded and led for many decades.