Alfred Meyer, PSR, MI speaking tour, Feb. 12-17: "Nuclear Power: What You Need to Know about Price, Pollution and Proliferation"

Alfred Meyer, PSR national board memberAlfred Meyer, member of the national board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), will present on "Nuclear Power: What You Need to Know about Price, Pollution and Proliferation" at several stops across southern Michigan between Feb. 12 to 17. Please see Alfred Meyer's bio, below.

The speaking tour will be conducted in honor of Dr. Jeffrey Patterson, Past President, PSR, who tragically died, suddenly and unexpectedly, of a heart attack on January 23rd. Please see Beyond Nuclear's In Memoriam.

Beyond Nuclear is honored and privileged to coordinate the tour, as well as co-sponsor it alongside such allies as: Sierra Club; Fountain Street Church; WMU Lee Honors College; WMU Environmental Studies program; WMU Institute of Government and Politics; Michigan Safe Energy Future (both Kalamazoo and South Haven chapters); Don't Waste Michigan; PSR Michigan Chapter; Alliance to Halt Fermi 3; and Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes.

Following are the particulars for each stop on the tour. Please print up hard copies of the flier for the event(s) nearest you, and post them in good places, as well as spread the word electronically and to your social media networks!

6:30-8:30pm, Wed., Feb. 12, Chapel, Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain Street, N.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49503 (flier); free street parking available in area after 5:00 pm, or there is a parking ramp about 3 blocks away at Pearl and Ionia;

7:00pm, Thurs., Feb. 13, WMU, Sangren Hall, Room 1910, Kalamazoo, MI (flier);

6:30-9:00pm, Fri., Feb. 14, Lake Michigan College, Rm. 141, 125 Veterans Blvd., South Haven, MI 49090 (flier);

3:00-5:00pm, Sat., Feb. 15, Ferndale Public Library, 222 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale, MI 48220 (flier);

1:00-3:00pm, Sun., Feb. 16, Ellis Library & Reference Center, 3700 S. Custer Rd., Monroe, MI 48161 (flier; and library e-calendar link, including link to map of library's location);

6:00-7:30pm, Mon., Feb. 17, at the Ecology Center, 339 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor 48104, hosted by Michigan Physicians for Social Responsibility (flier).

Alfred Meyer's bio:

Alfred Meyer is a social activist who serves on the board of directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and Co-Chairs the Radiation and Health Committee.  Based in Washington, D.C., PSR is a U.S. non-profit organization that advocates for the public health by addressing policies regarding nuclear weapons, nuclear power, nuclear waste, climate change and toxic chemicals.

Mr. Meyer is active in New York City, networking PSR with other groups and efforts regarding the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima Dai-ichi in Japan, the United Nations’ response to Fukushima, and efforts to close the nearby reactors at Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear power plant on the Hudson.

Additionally, Mr. Meyer is Past-President and Secretary of the board of Friends of Chernobyl Centers U.S., which works with Chernobyl Centers for Psycho-Social Rehabilitation in five Ukrainian communities greatly affected by the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, that began on April 26, 1986.  He has visited the community centers and the reactor site in Ukraine.

He has also been the Program Director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in Washington DC, Executive Director of PSR Wisconsin, and Chair of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

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."

Mayor of Town That Hosted Fukushima Nuclear Plant Says He Was Told: “No Accident Could Ever Happen”

Amy 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.

Chris Williams, VCAN & VYDA, "Resisting Entergy, Rogue Nuclear Corporation," Palisades, MI, Thurs., Jan. 16th

Yard signs created by Michigan Safe Energy Future--Kalamazoo Chapter

Entergy Nuclear: Resisting a Rogue Corporation and its Radioactive Risks

A presentation by Chris Williams of Vermont Citizens Action Network as well as Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance

Thursday, January 16, 2014, 6:30 to 9:00 PM,

Lake Michigan College,

125 Veterans Blvd., Room 141

South Haven, MI 49090

(For directions to campus, location of parking, etc.,
see: http://www.lakemichigancollege.edu/SH)

Come learn about Entergy Nuclear’s dirty dozen atomic reactors, including the problem-plagued Palisades near South Haven. Chris Williams is a leader of the ongoing, highly successful grassroots campaign to shutdown Entergy's dangerously degraded Vermont Yankee atomic reactor (a Fukushima Daiichi twin design). Having stopped proposed new reactors in Indiana during his 25 years of service as Executive Director of Citizen Action Coalition, he will show how community organizing can stop dirty, dangerous, and expensive atomic reactors, and replace them with efficiency and renewables like wind and solar.

Chris Williams, is a long time sustainable energy policy activist. He is currently organizer for the Vermont Citizens Action Network, a grassroots organization working to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear station and replace it with sustainable energy generation. Williams has a long professional history working with public interest organizations. For 25 years he was the executive director for Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, a not for profit consumer and environmental advocacy organization. CAC conducts extensive grassroots public education campaigns concerning, public utility regulation, energy policy, environmental policy, and the preservation of family farms.

Co-sponsored by Michigan Safe Energy Future (http://michigansafeenergyfuture.com),
Beyond Nuclear (www.beyondnuclear.org),
and Don’t Waste Michigan (http://dwmi.homestead.com).

For more info, contact Bette Pierman, Michigan Safe Energy Future, (269) 369-3993 or

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216

[See the event flier here]

Beyond Nuclear on Thom Hartmann: "Military poisoned by Fukushima radiation"

On Thursday evening, Jan. 2nd, Thom Hartmann hosted Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on his television program, in a segment entitled "Military poisoned by Fukushima radiation," to discuss the apparent radiation sickness and maladies suffered by sailors who served on the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, which was anchored just a mile or two downwind and downstream from Fukushima Daiichi in Japan during the first, worst days of the catastrophe.

Arnie Gundersen at Fairewinds Energy Education has commented on the sick sailors in a podcast.

The re-launching of the lawsuit, brought by 71 sick (half with various cancers) Reagan crew men and women against Tokyo Electric Power Company, comes after the recent exposé by the Tampa Bay Times about sick U.S. Navy sailors who were ordered to dump radioactive wastes, over the course of 15 years, into the Atlantic Ocean, a half-century ago, aboard the Calhoun County.