“…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

[A version of this article is published in the current edition of Positive News US under the headline “US Heeds the Wake-Up Call.” Photo: 350.org]

By Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle
EON, The Ecological Options Network

Steps Toward a Nuclear Free World
In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, which is already worse than Chernobyl and Three Mile Island combined, and which will continue to spew deadly radioactive particles around the planet for the unforeseeable future, a number of signs have emerged that many people have heeded this 2-by-4 wake up blow between the collective eyebrows.

This is very good news for long-time global anti-nuclear activists since there’s been relatively little attention to the nuclear issue in the last two decades. People have forgotten, and the young don’t know, our powerful anti-nuclear past. The lesson: Resistance IS Fertile!

Coalitions like the Clamshell Alliance in the northeast U.S, the Abalone Alliance in California, the International Nuclear Weapons Free Zone and the Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific Movement made huge strides in the 80’s and early 90’s pushing back the ravenous two-headed industry of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

Coalitions formed that blocked 100 planned nuclear power plants along the US west coast. California, roughly the same size as Japan, was slated to have the same number of nuclear reactors as Japan now has, 54. Spirited opposition from many thousands blocked all but a handful. Reactors in Sacramento were actually voted to be closed down and were replaced by solar panels. Humboldt County’s nuclear plant was also closed. Primitive radioactive waste dumps were also blocked – forcing the nuclear industry to keep waste where it was produced rather than encouraging more production, contaminating more precious land and water and avoiding transportation of hazardous radioactive waste through small towns and large cities. These successes, plus inherent financial liability, kept the thousand nuclear power plants planned for the rest of the U.S. to 104.

Fukushima has wakened people once again to the insidious destruction from long-lived radioactive particles and the permanent DNA mutations that nuclear pollution causes.

In the U.S., the ante is being raised in Vermont, New York, California and in other states, where fierce grassroots battles now rage to shut aging reactors, many of which are on earthquake faults and virtually identical to those now spewing at Fukushima. Activists are using a combination of tactics from rallies to legal suits. Current California Congressional candidate Norman Soloman, is the first to call for the complete shutdown of California’s nuclear power plants.

Instead of the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ predicted by nuclear proponents, Beyond Nuclear.org lists pages of examples of what it calls a ‘Nuclear Retreat.’

[Vermont Yankee photo: Associated Press]

Just a few examples:
*Vermont: Vermont Yankee – Communities throughout Vermont, their Federal legislators, plus the state legislators are opposed to continuing the operation of the decomposing Vermont Yankee plant – the same GE Mark I reactor model as in Fukushima. A heated struggle is in process.

*California: There are two nuclear power stations located on the coast, with a combined total of 5 reactors, all on active earthquake faults.
Diablo Canyon – Plant operator PG&E – who’s safety record is atrocious – has applied for early re-licensing of Diablo’s 2 aging reactors. Citizens’ groups like Women’s Energy Matters and Mothers for Peace are calling for immediate decommissioning. State legislators are calling for more seismic studies before the requested re-licensing is considered.
San Onofre – between L.A. and San Diego sits directly on the beach and close to two earthquake faults. Current California Congressional candidate Norman Soloman, is calling for the complete shutdown of California’s nuclear power plants.

*New York: Indian Point – New York residents are pointing out the impossibility of evacuating the NY metropolitan area’s 50 million population near Long Island’s Indian Point nuclear reactors in the wake of a disaster and are calling for a shutdown. Gov. Cuomo has ordered it closed.

*Texas: Twin new reactor projects due to start construction in 2012 at the South Texas Nuclear Project have been put on hold. Now this project looks very doubtful because embattled Japanese utility, Tepco, was to be an investor in the project along with NRG Energy, the majority owner, which was even looking for loans from the Japanese government. Tepco is now facing a $15 Billion dollar loss and its Fukushima disaster has caused a major disruption in the Japanese economy far beyond the earthquake and tsunami damage.

A Global ‘Market Trend?’
As long-time nuclear critic Harvey Wasserman, editor of NukeFree.org reports, “A Japanese-financed project for Texas and a French one in Maryland are all but dead…. The pressures on old and new US reactors, and the collapse of the industry in Germany and Japan, appear on the brink of pushing a failed technology into the scrap heap of history.”

May 31, 2011. Eight European Union countries (Austria, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal) have created a new anti-nuclear bloc within the EU. from NIRS.org

The Fukushima disaster is a wake-up call to join our individual talents and energies to local, national and international pushback efforts for a nuclear free world.

The evolutionary wind is at our backs. Fukushima’s toxic radionuclides, disproving false claims of nuclear safety, are in the air. Join the fun – let’s create a nuclear-free world! Remember, history shows – Resistance IS Fertile.

For more info: NIRS.org, NukeFree.org, BeyondNuclear.org, FaireWinds.org, Union of Concerned Scientists, IEER.org , Western States Legal Foundation, Tri-Valley CAREs, Women’s Energy Matters, Mothers for Peace