Please sign these petitions from Japan!

Petitions from Japan.  Please sign! 

Hibakusha (survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings) have launched a petition campaign, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons (with Obama's May 27thvisit to Hiroshima just days away.) Please support it!  Find the petition here.  And Friends of the Earth Japan is circulating a petition urging the Japanese government to block a proposal to use radioactively contaminated soil from Fukushima in public works projects across the country.  Sign here!  Please help circulate both petitions to your networks.  More

Ft. Calhoun latest nuclear plant to announce closure

The Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska nuclear power plant must close by the end of the year, says Omaha Public Power District’s chief executive, Tim Burke, who says the plant is just too expensive to run.  Ft. Calhoun has been plagued with problems including a fire, and in 2011 was famously surrounded by flood waters from the Missouri River.  Earlier this month, Exelon announced it would close two Illinois nuclear plants -- Quad Cities and Clinton -- if the state failed to prop them up.  The Oyster Creek reactor in New Jersey and the Pilgrim reactor in Massachusetts are both scheduled to close in 2019. Meanwhile the Tennessee Valley Authority has given up on its two planned Bellefonte reactors and is instead putting the incomplete plant up for sale.  TVA spent a reported $5 billion plus on the project but the sale price -- if indeed there are any buyers -- is estimated at $36.4 million. More on Ft. Calhoun. More on Bellefonte.

A Moral Giant: Remembering Father Dan Berrigan, co-founder of the nuclear weapons abolition Plowshares movement

This photo of Dan Berrigan (smiling, center) shows his apprehension after many months living underground, evading arrest. Despite being on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, Dan Berrigan continued to speak and preach against the Vietnam War, once narrowly slipping through the dragnet by hiding inside a giant puppet after addressing an anti-war rally.As reported by Amy Goodman at Democracy Now!, Father Daniel Berrigan passed on Saturday, April 30th, just shy of his 95th birthday. Democracy Now! dedicated its entire hour-long episode on Monday, May 2nd to remembering Father Dan Berrigan, "a moral giant." Those interviewed included Father Berrigan's niece Frida Berrigan, a columnist for Waging Nonviolence and the author of "It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood."

Dan Berrigan co-founded the nuclear weapons abolition Plowshares movement, named after the Old Testament prophet Isaiah's injunction to beat swords into plowshares, and study war no more. In 1980, Berrigan, his brother Philip, and several others conducted a disarmanent action at a nuclear weapons manufacturing plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, disabling a nuclear warhead, then submitting to arrest.

Both Berrigan brothers, and their comrades in disarmament, would continue to commit numerous non-violent civil disobedience anti-war and anti-nuke actions for the rest of their lives, for which they ended up spending long time periods in prison (Philip Berrigan spent a total of 11 years in prison).

Dan Berrigan's funeral mass on Friday, May 6th at St. Francis Xavier Church in New York City was livestreamed; the eulogy delivered by his niece Frida Berrigan is posted online.

Beyond Nuclear on Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture" regarding Hanford's radioactive leaks & Chernobyl commemoration in D.C.

Thom Hartmann, host of "The Big Picture"Thom Hartmann, host of "The Big Picture," interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on recent -- and historical -- liquid high-level radioactive waste leaks at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) military plutonium production Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, WA. Thom also asked about workers sickened by toxic vapors there, and whistleblowers who have brought to light major failures, incompetence, and wrongdoing at Hanford's billion dollar boondoggle vitrification plant.

Kevin talked about Beyond Nuclear's commemoration of Fukushima+5/Chernobyl+30 at the Goethe-Institut in Washington, D.C. on May 3.

Thom interviewed Kevin at part of a panel discussion also featuring Alex Lawson, Executive Director-Social Security Works and Sarah Badawi, Legislative Affairs Director-Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). Watch the discussion beginning at the 45 minute mark, and continuing to the end of the show.

Beyond Nuclear on Watching The Hawks discussing the (non)f future of nuclear power