EON Commentary by James Heddle

Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil! –
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted –
On this home by horror haunted – tell me truly, I implore –
Is there – is there balm in Gilead? – tell me – tell me, I implore!’
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’
Edgar Allen Poe – The Raven

Livermore – Nuclear Danger for Evermore
[Scroll down for video clips]
If Hanford in Washington state is the butt hole of the American nuclear weapons/power establishment; Savannah River in Georgia its duodenum; the NRC in D.C. its heart (or spleen); then you could build a good case that the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California is its brain – at least the reptilian part.

LLNL bills itself as “a premier research and development institution for science and technology applied to national security.”  Charged with maintaining and continually upgrading America’s nuclear arsenal, home to state-of-the-art instrumentation and super computers, LLNL’s ‘best and brightest’ scientists and technicians design planetary insecurity in the name of of US national security, polluting their local community with nuclear radiation in the process.

Formerly run until recently by the University of California, Berkeley, LLNL is the evil twin of the nuclear weapon design laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, the folks who brought us the Manhattan Project.  ‘Nukes Forever!’ is their unofficial motto – voiced in a moment of unbridled exuberance by former LLNL head, John Knuckles.

Thought the immanent danger of planetary nuclear annihilation went away with the Cold War? Think again. The US and Russia are still targeting each other’s cities on hairtrigger, three minute ‘launch on warning’ status.  Make you feel more secure? You betcha! Not.

And what do you suppose Israel, India and Pakistan are planing to do with their nukes? As Johathan Schell makes clear in his recent ‘The Seventh Decade,’ the nuclear weapons and energy policies of the the US government – even more virulent under Obama, despite his artful rhetoric –  continue to endanger our national security, our planet and the very survival of our species and the biosphere.

Two San Francisco Bay area grassroots organizations – Tri Valley CARES, headed by Mary Leah Kelly, and the Western States Legal Foundation, headed by Jackie Kabasso – have been blowing the whistle on LLNL for years, confronting it locally, exposing it nationally, and condemning it globally.

The following clips document an action held Aug. 6 in the LLNL’s front yard  – a rally, candle light procession and video projection of a Skype message from activists in Japan on the Lab’s fence.  

“From Hiroshima to Fukushima to Livermore: Confronting the Two-Headed Dragon of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power” was organized by a broad coalition of Bay Area peace, environmental and social justice groups, led by Tri-Valley CAREs and the Western States Legal Foundation, to demonstrate solidarity with the radiation victims of the nuclear bomb and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It was held at Bill Payne Park right across the street from Livermore Lab, which is enjoying a nuclear weapons budget under Obama larger than existed under Reagan at the height of the Cold War.


The program explored the seamless, Siamese twin connection between nuclear weapons and nuclear power that has existed – and continues to exist – since the beginning of ‘the Nuclear Age.’

The event concluded with a march to the Lawence Livermore Lab entrance and a live skype
 conversation with an Hiroshima survivor, Mr. Keijiro Matsushima and Steve Leeper, Chair of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, which was projected on the Livermore Lab fence. Mr. Matsushima recounts his boyhood experiences as an eye-witness to the bombing. Steve Leeper describes the post-Fukushima situation in japan and urges U.S. nuclear free activists to join the campaign to shut down Japan’s nukes.

Part 1 – Marylia Kelly – Tri-Valley CARES
Part 2 – Dr. Robert Gould, Physicians for Nuclear Responsibility
Part 3 – Dr. Arjun Makhijani – IEER
Part 4 – Jackie Cabasso – Western States Legal Foundation
Part 5 – Live from Hiroshima – Keijiro Matsushima, Hiroshima eye-witness, and Steve Leeper, Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation.

Pt. 1 – Marylia Kelley

Pt. 2 – Robert Gould

Pt. 3 – Arjun Makhijani Keynote

Part 4 – Jackie Cabasso

Hiroshima to Fukushima to Livermore – Pt. 5

What Mr. O. Doesn’t Know About “Smart”
As Verizon workers mount the largest strike in recent labor history at the ‘beginning of the demise of the wired phone,’ workers blow the whistle on PG&E’s pervasive corporado culture, and a new executive clone is brought in to help the beleaguered power monopoly overcome its ‘recent challenges,’ we also look at more inconvenient truths concerning the folly of wireless ‘smartness’ about which our President has apparently quaffed the kool aid.

Mr. O on Smart Meters

The Too-Smart-For-Its-Own-Good Grid
August 4, 2011
By Larry Hardesty, MIT
New technologies intended to boost reliance on renewable energy could destabilize the power grid if they’re not matched with careful pricing policies.

‘Smart Grid’ may be vulnerable to hackers – CNN

Smart grid vulnerability 2:05
CNN’s Jeanne Meserve looks at possible cyber-attacks on the new electric smart grid.

Related CNN Article
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Is it really so smart to forge ahead with the high technology, digitally based electricity distribution and transmission system known as the “Smart Grid”? Tests have shown that a hacker can break into the system, and cybersecurity experts said a massive blackout could result.

Smart Grid offers target-rich opportunities for hackers
Published 3 August 2010
SCADA systems are vulnerable to hacking, but the smart grid is even more vulnerable; security experts at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas last week warned that the accelerated deployment of smart-grid technology could leave critical infrastructure and private homes vulnerable to hackers; hacking may come in a benign form — customers might simply figure out how to lower their electricity bills by manipulating how much energy their meters say they are using; hacking may also have more sinister aspects: large-scale attacks may also be possible, and the smart grid’s serious vulnerabilities make it possible to shut down the power supply to an entire city.

Smart Grid Exposes Utilities to Smart Computer Hackers – Scientific American
Greater challenges lie ahead as smart grid technologies proliferate in the nation’s transmission network and utility control centers and eventually reach business and residential electricity customers
By Peter Behr and ClimateWire | April 19, 2011

A year ago, an unidentified computer intruder tried to penetrate the Lower Colorado River Authority’s power generation network with 4,800 high-speed log-in attempts that originated at an Internet address in China, according to a grid official’s confidential memo that was leaked to the media.

Hacking the Smart Grid – Technology Review
The technology could open up all kinds of opportunities for attackers, researchers say.

Smart enough? This image shows the interior of a smart grid meter tested
by Mike Davis of IOActive.
Credit: Mike Davis

PG&E workers say safety warnings ignored – San Jose Mercury News
By Steve Johnson

PG&E briefing warned of major risk of gas disaster – SF Chron

What does it mean to “opt out” if you live over a bank of 42 meters?
Video by Amy O’Hair
Bay Area resident Tom Rossi and his wife sleep in a room directly over a bank of 42 “smart” meters. The pulses from the meters are nearly continuous and measurably strong. His wife’s sleep is disturbed. He doesn’t want to be a guinea pig in an experiment that no one is paying attention to.
It was really clear while I was there measuring that the pulses were
not exiting the building through the exterior wall (which was mostly
underground), but going directly up into the room above—also likely
getting bounced around and intensified in the electrical room below
first.–Amy

PUC investigates allegations in lawsuit against PG&E – San Jose Mercury News

Anthony F. Earley has been appointed chairman of the board, chief executive officer and president of PG&E. (Courtesy PG&E/Beth Foley )

Battered PG&E names outsider as new CEO – San Jose Mercury News

Verizon workers on strike at the beginning of the demise of the wired phone

Verizon Workers Strike over “Full-Scale Attack” on Wages, Benefits at Telecom Giant – Democracy Now

Technocracy’s Endgame: Global Smart Grid
By Patrick Wood – The August Forecast & Review
“There is a new world wide web emerging right before our eyes. It is a global energy net­work and, like the internet, it will change our cul­ture, society and how we do busi­ness. More impor­tantly, it will alter how we use, trans­form and exchange energy.”  – Terrawatts.com home page.

The dark horse of the New World Order is not Com­mu­nism, Socialism or Fas­cism: It is Technocracy.

The devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of Smart Grid tech­nology in the U.S. – reinventing the elec­trical grid with Wifi-enabled dig­ital power meters – is pro­ceeding at break­neck speed. Although Smart Grid is the result of years of gov­ern­ment plan­ning, the recent kickoff was made pos­sible through mas­sive “green” grants that were qui­etly included in Pres­i­dent Obama’s eco­nomic stim­ulus package starting in 2009.

These lucra­tive grants have drawn in a host of cor­po­rate players, from utility com­pa­nies to dig­ital meter man­u­fac­turers to con­trol soft­ware ven­dors. Global com­pa­nies like IBM, GE and Siemens are putting their full effort behind the “build-out” that will con­sol­i­date all of America into a single, inte­grated, communication-enabled elec­tric delivery and mon­i­toring system, col­lec­tively called Smart Grid.

Pro­po­nents of Smart Grid claim that it will empower the con­sumer to better manage his or her power con­sump­tion and hence, costs. The utility com­pa­nies will there­fore be more effi­cient in bal­ancing power loads and require­ments across diverse markets.

How­ever, like car­nival barkers, these Smart Grid huck­sters never reveal where or how Smart­Grid came into being, nor what the ulti­mate endgame aims to achieve; per­haps most of them have no idea either, but simply repeat the mantra as if they know what they are talking about.

In Smart­Grid: The Imple­men­ta­tion of Tech­noc­racy?, I revealed the back­ground of both Tech­noc­racy and Smart Grid, and most impor­tantly, the links between them. Smart Grid is born out of Tech­noc­racy and not the other way around.

“…I felt staggered, really staggered by what I’d seen. And just where I sat down, I found some lump of concrete, I remember, that had not been pulverized. I sat on that with my little Hermes typewriter, and my first words, I remember now, were, “I write this as a warning to the world.“ – Wilfred Burchett, an Australian who was the first reporter into Hiroshima.

Duck and cover your ass – the standard response of nuclear and government officials in the face of atomic disasters.

As we commemorate the heinous crime against humanity represented by the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, painfully conscious of the on-going crime against the planetary biosphere represented by what has been called the ‘Vesuvius of radionuclides’ still being spewed daily from Fukushima with no end in sight, it is important to remember the seamless, Siamese twin connection between nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

The essence is this: Back in the ‘duck and cover,’ ‘Atoms for Peace,’ ‘too cheap to meter’ era of the ’50’s, the U.S. government’s strategy to obtain nuclear bomb material was to encourage industry to build nuclear power reactors by promising to buy the waste for nuclear weapons production. They called it ‘dual-purpose,’

“By ‘dual-purpose’ we mean that the plants would be primarily for the production of power but would also would produce plutonium for military purposes as a by-product. In our judgment, these plants…would be justified from an economic standpoint only if a substantial value were as- signed to the plutonium produced.” [1952 Annual Report, Commonwealth Edison Company, Chicago.]

“Commercial nuclear power has a civilian role,” said Fred Davis, then of the Government Affairs Office of the Edison Electric Institute, “and we’d hate to see the two issues tied together. It’d make what we are trying to do more difficult.”

[For a fuller discussion, see Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons: The Connection by the Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS).

That connection was the topic of ‘From Hiroshima to Fukushima to Livermore: Confronting the Two-Headed Dragon of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power, a rally and demonstration at the Livermore Lab organized by Tri-Valley CARES and the Western States Legal Foundation, Saturday, Aug. 6th.

Watch our forthcoming blog posts for our video coverage of that event, as well as of the MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) concert and Safe Energy Fair held in San Mateo, CA the same weekend.

Meanwhile, here is a round-up of recent nuclear stories.

Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Democracy Now
Our guest is Greg Mitchell, co-author of “Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial,” with Robert Jay Lifton. His latest book is “Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki and The Greatest Movie Never Made.”

Chernobyl: the great cover-up – Le Monde diplomatique – English edition
by Alison Katz
For 50 years dangerous concentrations of radionuclides have been accumulating in earth, air and water from weapons testing and reactor incidents. Yet serious studies of the effects of radiation on health have been obscured – not least by the World Health Organisation.

The Hiroshima Cover-Up DN Blog

Fukushima–NRC Secrecy Delayed Knowledge of Reactor Core Meltdowns Citizen Action New Mexico
NRC COMPLICIT IN RADIATION EXPOSURE COVER-UP IN JAPAN
A confidential assessment written by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and obtained by a FOIA request, strongly indicates knowledge that Japan’s Daiichi nuclear reactors had
experienced core fuel meltdown within the first few days after a devastating
tsunami. By keeping its assessment confidential, the NRC allowed the
Japanese government to remain silent about the fuel meltdowns.

Doubting Assurances, Japanese Find Radioactivity on Their Own – NYTimes.com

Anger in Japan Over Withheld Radiation Forecasts – NYTimes.com

Japanese, in Shortage, Willingly Ration Watts – NYTimes.com

Nuclear-Waste Disposal a Growing Fiscal Problem – WSJ.com
Nuclear Waste Piles Up—in Budget Deficit

U.S. used Hiroshima to bolster support for nuclear power – Asahi
BY RYUICHI KANARI – STAFF WRITER
The private notes of the head of a U.S. cultural center in Hiroshima revealed that Washington targeted the city’s residents with pro-nuclear propaganda in the mid-1950s after deciding a swing in their opinions was vital to promoting the use of civil nuclear power in Japan and across the world.

Congressional Budget Office: Nuke Loan Guarantees Unpredictable

HIROSHIMA DAY 2003: Secret Meeting on the Privatization of Nuclear War
Behind closed doors at Strategic Command Headquarters
by Michel Chossudovsky
The nuclear weapons industry, which includes the production of nuclear devices as well as the missile delivery systems, etc., is controlled by a handful of defense contractors with Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grunman, Raytheon and Boeing in the lead.

From Kilotons to Millisieverts: Japan’s Nuclear Legacy – TruthDig.org
By Amy Goodman
In recent weeks, radiation levels have spiked at the Fukushima nuclear power reactors in Japan, with recorded levels of 10,000 millisieverts per hour (mSv/hr) at one spot. This is the number reported by the reactor’s discredited owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., although that number is simply as high as the Geiger counters go. In other words, the radiation levels are literally off the charts. Exposure to 10,000 millisieverts for even a brief time would be fatal, with death occurring within weeks. (For comparison, the total radiation from a dental X-ray is 0.005 mSv, and from a brain CT scan is less than 5 mSv.)

Fairewinds Report for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy on TVA Bellefonte Plant

Fairewinds Report for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy on TVA Bellefonte Plant from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

By Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle
[Updated]

Transparency… Kind-of
Below is our video coverage of the second pre-hearing conference on the CPUC proceeding regarding PG&E’s ‘smart meter’ opt-out proposal. First, some background.

On May 31. 20011 the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified radiofrequency (RF) as a class 2B Carcinogen, along with lead, DDT, etc. Despite this, PG&E is insisting that it must install RF-emitting gas and electric meters onto homes and businesses. But one tribal council, 44 California counties, cities and local jurisdictions, including Bolinas, together representing millions of citizens, plus thousands who filed formal complaints, want no part of it. So the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) forced PG&E to come up with an opt-out plan.

But in response, the only choices PG&E wants to give ratepayers is to have the wireless RF function turned off, for a hefty charge both upfront and monthly, and/or have the meter installed some distance away from the residence for a hefty charge. In other words, PG&E wants to charge ratepayers plenty for not putting a class 2b carcinogen onto a customer’s house. Extortion anyone?

Plus, neither option would address the massive radiation exposure from all the neighbor’s mesh-networked signals. Nor does it remove the ‘dirty electricity’ generated by the ‘smart’ meter’s switching mode power supply, which causes high frequency transients through power lines that are at least partially the cause of the sickness some people are experiencing in relation to recently installed wireless ‘smart’ meters. And neither option would address the serious privacy, security, safety and electronic interference issues.

EON is an official ‘party’ or ‘intervenor’ in the quasi legal proceeding deliberating this proposed opt out plan along with the EMF Safety Network, Marin County Association of Realtors, Marin County, Lake County, Fairfax and a number of other county and municipal governments and agencies and citizen organizations.

Being an intervenor in this case means you take the side of the public against the utility interests where they are asking the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) to give them the authority to charge ratepayers for something or to establish policy.

Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric were invited to participate in this pre-hearing conference, but as of now, will not be a part of this proceeding focusing on the PG&E opt-out proposal.

Although a Channel 7 cameraman was taping intermittently, we were only given permission to tape after much haggling and showing the judge a copy of the California Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act‘s language with the key sections highlighted. (Thanks to Barbara George, Women’s Energy Matters)

The Act states in part, “…It is the public policy of this state that public agencies exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business and the proceedings of public agencies be conducted openly so that the public may remain informed.

“In enacting this article the Legislature finds and declares that it it the intent of the law that actions of state agencies be taken openly and that their deliberation be conducted openly,

“The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created….”

The Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, Government Code Section 11120-11132 (section 11124.1-a) reads: “Any person attending an open and public meeting of the state body shall have the right to record the proceedings with an audio or video tape recorder or a still or motion picture camera in the absence of a reasonable finding by the state body that the recording cannot continue without noise, illumination, or obstruction of view that constitutes, or would constitute, a persistent disruption of the proceedings” [For the full act see here and here

In response to our objection, the judge then called a recess and conferred with a CPUC legal advisor, taking our copy of the act to deliberate. All the other utilities conferred with their own lawyers, asking us for the exact legal citations. They did not seem pleased at the prospect of having us record the entire proceeding and post it unedited, as was our stated intention.

When the judge returned, she announced we would be allowed to tape that meeting only. After that meeting, she ruled, we would not be able to tape, but they would have it webcast. We were told that, if they were ever unable to webcast, they would allow us to then tape again, otherwise not. By our reading, the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act does not state that webcasting by the state body cancels the right of participants to record the proceeding.

Unfortunately, before we were allowed to begin taping, we missed some really good comments from the intervenors. Anyway, here – in two parts – is what we were able to record. See below for what you can do.

Our video coverage of the second pre-hearing conference on PG&E’s ‘smart meter’ opt-out proposal is a rare peek at a very contentious issue between the public and utilities. Let us know what you think at info@eon3.net

Protect your analog meter! Put up signs and padlock it since PG&E has been known to ‘lose’ people on their delay list and sneak installation if people aren’t home.

But do get on the PG&E ‘smart’ meter installation delay list call 1-877-743-7378, Call now!

And file written complaints to the CPUC c/o Public Advisor, 505 an Ness Ave. Rm. 2103, San Francisco, CA 94102 These letters are VERY important.

Follow up by calling the CPUC Commissioners:
Mike Florio 415-703-1840
Catharine Sandoval 415-703-2593
President Michael Peevey 415-703-3703
Timothy Simon 415-703-1407
Mark Ferron 415-703-2782