Beyond Nuclear at "Decommissioning: A New Era in the U.S. Nuclear Power Industry; a Critical Need for Congressional Oversight," on Capitol Hill

Beyond Nuclear was honored and privileged to speak at a May 13th congressional briefing, co-sponsored by Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Riverkeeper and other participating groups, including ours.  

 

A recording of the briefing, about urgent atomic reactor decommissioning and highly radioactive waste management issues, is posted online at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) website, here. (Beyond Nuclear's presentation, by radioactive waste specialist, Kevin Kamps, is from the 46 minute 10 second mark, to the 59 minute 58 second mark; also see the Q&A period, beginning at the 1 hour 20 minute mark.) Also at the link above are posted supporting materials for the briefing, including Beyond Nuclear's briefing paper, by Paul Gunter, reactor oversight project director, entitled "'Nuclear Autopsy': The Missing Link between Decommissioning Reactors and Operating License Extensions."

The Chernobyl Podcast -- HBO

Adi Roche, founder, Chernobyl Children International, Cork, Ireland, at the United Nations on Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day, April 26, 2019The second episode of the "Chernobyl" miniseries on HBO and Sky aired earlier this week, with episode three of five scheduled for Monday, May 20th at 9pm Eastern on HBO.

 

HBO and Sky also have an official podcast accompanying the miniseries: The official podcast of the miniseries Chernobyl, from HBO and Sky. Join host Peter Sagal (NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!") and series creator, writer and executive producer Craig Mazin after each episode as they discuss the true stories that shaped the scenes, themes and characters. Chernobyl airs Mondays at 9 PM on HBO and Tuesdays at 9 PM on Sky Atlantic. The Chernobyl Podcast is also available to stream on HBO NOW and HBO GO starting Monday, May 6 at 10 PM. 

 

Here are links to the podcasts themselves that have run thus far: Part 1 (May 6); Part 2 (May 13). 

 

Mazin's writing was deeply influenced by Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl. Alexievich, a Belarussian author, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015.

 

At HBO's "Chernobyl" miniseries homepage, there are many extras, including behind the scenes interviews with actors and producers, as well as "Remembering the Impact of Chernobyl, 33 Years Later." This Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day at the United Nations in New York City on April 26, 2019, featured Adi Roche, founder of Chernobyl Children's International, based in Cork, Ireland (photo, above right).   

 

To learn more about Chernobyl, see Beyond Nuclear's companion guide to the miniseries, as well as NIRS's Chernobyl resource page.  

"We aren't prepared for something like this" -- Ohio school next to uranium enrichment facility closed after radioactive contaminants detected

As reported by CNN, Newsweek, WLWT Cincinnati, the ExchangeMonitor, and a growing number of news outlets, radioactive contaminants detected at the Zahn's Corner Middle School in Pike County, Ohio, (see photo) located very near the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, has led to the school's abrupt closure, and caused deep concern about the children's health, and contamination of other area homes, surface waters, etc. The Pike County General Health District published a press release. There is concern that DOE's highly controversial on-site radioactive waste and contamination disposal activities have liberated fugitive dust clouds, contaminated with hazardous radioactivity, causing the now-detected fallout downwind. Despite this, and frantic community concern, especially regarding the impact on children's health, DOE is refusing to suspend the operations, claiming more data is needed. More.

A companion guide to the "Chernobyl" series

If you are able to watch HBO's "Chernobyl" drama series -- and it's possible to take a short-term HBO subscription, then cancel -- Beyond Nuclear provides below some of our resources on the 1986 nuclear disaster.

CHERNOBYL THE FACTS Details on the accident and the myths and false information surrounding it.

CHERNOBYL DENIERS: Individuals once touting new reactors have turned to denying the realities of Chernobyl and the harm done by nuclear power. We debunk them.

CHERNOBYL: HOW BAD WAS IT? A look at Kate Brown's investigative and revelatory book about the post-Chernobyl cover-up.

A LIQUIDATOR'S STORY: The firsthand account by Chernobyl liquidator, Natalia Manzurova.

THE SUFFERING OF CHILDREN: The story of children afflicted by Chernobyl and their treatment in a Havana, Cuba hospital.

THE DOGS OF CHERNOBYL: The rescue and treatment of abandoned dogs around the Chernobyl site.

RUDOLPH THE RADIOACTIVE REINDEER: Impacts of Chernobyl fallout on animals and their affect on livelihoods in Lapland and Norway.

NO MARKET FOR WILD BOAR: Persistent radioactive contamination of wild boar and mushroooms in Europe from Chernobyl 33 years later, still puts both off limits to human consumption.

DEFORMITIES IN TRUE BUGS: A scientific illustrator discovered fatal mutations in insects affected by Chernobyl fallout.

CHERNOBYL'S CHILDREN: Belarus was the worst affected by Chernobyl. A UK charity has transformed the medical and social environment there to help sick children.

CHERNOBYL WILDLIFE IS FAILING, NOT THRIVING: Landmark research and numerous studies show the health of Chernobyl's wildlife is drastically compromised.

THE CHERNOBYL EXPERIENCE: A novel follows the lives of several characters during and after the Chernobyl disaster.

May 13 webcast -- Decommissioning: A New Era in the U.S. Nuclear Power Industry; a Critical Need for Congressional Oversight

Post-meltdown "clean up" at Three Mile Island nuclear power plantBeyond Nuclear is honored and privileged to have been invited to speak at a May 13th congressional briefing, co-sponsored by Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Riverkeeper and other participating groups, including ours. The briefing, about urgent atomic reactor decommissioning and highly radioactive waste management issues, will be webcast live from 2-3:30pm Eastern on Monday, May 13 (if you live near enough to Capitol Hill, please attend in person!). See EESI's website for more info., and be sure to pre-register for the webcast (or to attend in person).

Another event is coming up on May 19-22: Alliance for Nuclear Accountability's annual "DC Days." Beyond Nuclear has been a proud ANA member group since our founding in 2007. A highlight of every DC Days is the awards ceremony. Beyond Nuclear gives the Dr. Judith H. Johnsrud "Unsung Hero" Award each year. (It is one of a number of awards given out each year at DC Days, including to well deserving members of congress, activists, journalists, etc.) We are happy to announce this year's "Unsung Hero" awardee: Rose Gardner, with the Alliance for Environmental Strategies (AFES) in Eunice, New Mexico, our ally in the fight against irradiated nuclear fuel consolidated interim storage facilities at Interim Storage Partners/Waste Control Specialists, across the state line in Texas, just several miles from her home, and at Holtec/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, halfway between Carlsbad and Hobbs, NM, about 40 miles from her home (see here). It is not too late to register for and attend DC Days, if you can make it.

Judith Johnsrud (1931-2014) was a founding board member of Beyond Nuclear. She also co-founded Nuclear Information and Resource Service, as well as the Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power. One of her many claims to fame was helping co-lead the intervention against the building of the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the first place, in the 1970s, years before the TMI-2 meltdown. Another was being honored, in 2012, by Sierra Club for a half-century of anti-nuclear activism. See a tribute to Judith on the bottom of the last page of our 2014 newsletter about the Three Mile Island meltdown. (The photo, above right, shows TMI-2, post-meltdown, on the banks of the Susquehanna River, near Harrisburg, undergoing "clean up" activities. If and when TMI-1 finally closes (see entry above), decommissioning of the entire Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, including Unit 2, can finally begin, 40 years and counting after the 1979 meltdown.)