NH #431: NUCLEAR UPDATE: TMI Closure, San Onofre Waste Nightmare Continues, Nuclear Weapons in Washington State, Uranium Mining in Saskatchewan

NUCLEAR UPDATE: Three Mile Island Alert billboard states the plain and ugly truth about the radioactive waste left behind – that closing the reactors is only the first step in an endless process.

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This Week’s Featured Interviews:

Nuclear UPDATE by frontline activists on nuclear fuel chain issues around North America:

• Eric Epstein, head of Three Mile Island Alert, on what it means for the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania to finally close… and what lies ahead for the local activist community
• Once a nuclear reactor closes, the need for citizen action doesn’t end; it just shifts to what to do with the highly radioactive waste that remains deadly for literally hundreds of thousands of years.  Here in southern California, that focuses on San Onofre and the use of thin-walled storage canisters  – only 5/8” of stainless steel – hold the so-called “spent” fuel rods, all of which contain plutonium.  Charles Langley and Nina Babiarz of Public Watchdogs talk about legal action taken by their group to stop the loading of the flawed waste canisters, and bring us up to date on where we stand with San Onofre’s nuclear waste legacy.
• Activism against nuclear weapons is again building up to take on the build-up of nuclear weapons and what’s turning into the new Cold War.  One extremely active group is the Washington state Physicians for Social Responsibility. To find out more about what grassroots activism is happening in that state, I talked with Carly Brook, WPSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Organizer.
  Washington Against Nuclear Weapons Coalition
• Uranium mining is the start of the nuclear fuel chain, and we examine its continuing impact on First Nations people in Northern Saskatchewan with Candyce Paul.  She is a member of the English River First Nations and works with the Committee for Future Generations.  She and her people live a traditional lifestyle, close to the land, which is why you will hear her mention moose more than once.

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

Yeah – the first thing to do to protect your health after a nuclear detonation that takes down your entire city and all infrastructure is… DON’T USE CONDITIONER WHEN YOU SHAMPOO YOUR HAIR! And that’s official U.S. government policy! (I swear, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried…)