Monthly Archives: January 2016

Urgent Nuclear Warning from a Man Who Knows

Former U.S. Sec. of Defense, William J. Perry: “Today we still have over 20 thousand real world nuclear weapons. Enough to blow up everybody on the planet several times over.
Those weapons pose the immediate problem of a danger of terrorism, the immediate problem of the possibility of nuclear war.
“The antagonism between Russia and the United States has reached a point now where I believe we are on the brink of a new nuclear arms race. It breaks my heart.
“Today, the danger of a nuclear catastrophe is actually higher than it was during the cold war. Let me say that again…”

Former U.S. Sec. of Defense Dr. Wm. J. Perry – photo: EON

An original Silicon Valley entrepeneur, he advanced spy technology, was former Defense Secretary, but now is a leading Nuclear Abolitionist –

What does Bill Perry know that we don’t…
…and NEED TO?

Little did mild-mannered, hi-tech electronics entrepreneur Bill Perry know when he accepted a call from Washington, DC in 1962 that he would be involved in the most potentially catastrophic nuclear stand-off period in history.

That is, up until to this even higher risk present moment.

Though now eighty-six, Perry is a man with fire in his belly, and a drive to warn the world about what he knows as he travels the remaining ‘miles before he sleeps.’

He has been a defense establishment insider for most of his life., yet when most people would be relaxing into their ‘sunset years,’ Former Defense Secretary Bill Perry has teamed up with other senior statesmen of similar stature, Sam Nunn, George Schultz, and Henry Kissinger to mount a public nuclear consciousness-raising campaign aimed especially at the generation that will have to deal with the legacy of the Atomic Age in which each played major roles. Perry also laments the current amnesia about the nuclear threat by the general public – and therefore the lack of action.

“…Our chief peril is that the poised nuclear doom, much of it hidden beneath the seas and in remote badlands, is too far out of the global public consciousness.” (My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, William J. Perry)

In this succinct talk at a bookstore in Northern California, as part of his tireless current book tour, he lays out the key points his ‘journey on the nuclear brink,’ and shares what he knows must be done for our society to back away from the present nuclear brink.

Here’s where to find out more: WJPerryProject.

Political Responsibility in the Nuclear Age: an Open Letter to the American People

by Richard Falk, David Krieger – Robert Laney
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/22/political-responsibility-in-the-nuclear-age-an-open-letter-to-the-american-people/

“We are appalled that none of the candidates running for the highest office in the land has yet put forward any plans or strategy to end current threats of nuclear annihilation, none has challenged the planned expenditure of $1 trillion to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and none has made a point of the U.S. being in breach of its nuclear disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In the presidential debates it has been a non-issue, which scandalizes the candidates for not raising the issue in their many public speeches and the media for not challenging them for failing to do so. As a society, we are out of touch with the most frightening, yet after decades still dangerously mishandled, challenge to the future of humanity.”

No Danger of Nuclear War? The Pentagon’s Plan to Blow up the Planet
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
https://www.globalresearch.ca/there-is-no-danger-of-nuclear-war-or-is-there/5500276

“Publicly available military documents confirm that nuclear war is still on the drawing board of the Pentagon.

Compared to the 1950s, however, today’s nuclear weapons are far more advanced. The delivery system is more precise. In addition to China and Russia, Iran, Syria and North Korea are targets for a first strike pre-emptive nuclear attack.

Let us be under no illusions, the Pentagon’s plan to blow up the planet using advanced nuclear weapons is still on the books.”

Fukushima Mon Amour: the Hucksters of the Green Atom

by Jeffrey St. Clair

“There are currently 460 or so operating nukes, some chugging along far past their expiration dates, coughing up 10 percent of global energy demands. Teller’s green disciples want to see nuclear power’s total share swell to 50 percent, which would mean the construction of roughly 2100 new atomic water-boilers from Mogadishu to Kathmandu. What are the odds of all of those cranking up without a hitch?

Meanwhile, back at Fukushima, unnoticed by the global press corps, the first blood cancers (Myelogenous leukemia) linked to radiation exposure are being detected in children and cleanup workers. And off the coast of Oregon and California every Bluefin tuna caught in the last year has tested positive for radioactive Cesium 137 from the Fukushima meltdown. The era of eco-radiation has arrived. Don’t worry. It only has a half-life of 30.7 years.”


Ukraine on the brink of a nuclear disaster; Ukrainian saboteurs nearly caused another Fukushima

Pavel SHIPILIN,
In Экспресс Газета, December 15, 2015
Translated from Russian by Tom Winter, December 25, 2015

“Few gave noted the fact that cutting the power lines to de-energize Crimea nearly led to fatal consequences at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant, which is located in the Mykolaiv region, – an accident on a Chernobyl scale. A miracle saved us all: workers at the station succeeded in a few hours to restore the electricity to the security system. [Nuclear power plants produce electricity, but they need a constant supply of it to avoid meltdown, as in Fukushima, for instance — tr.]”

US airmen damage nuclear missile as ‘troubleshooting’ mission goes wrong

The air force stripped the three airmen of their nuclear certification following the incident in 2014 and quietly launched an accident investigation

For more on this issue:
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety Paperback – August 26, 2014
by Eric Schlosser – A myth-shattering exposé of America’s nuclear weapons

“…He sees the decline of interest in the nuclear issue as a matter of high urgency.

“This is the scary thing for me,” he says. “The people for whom this is still a threat, the people who are most anti-nuclear, the people who are most afraid about this, are the ones who know most about it.”

And yet, the pool of knowledge possessed by that elite group of weapons designers and scientists is fast drying up. “It’s very disturbing that the number of people who have seen a nuclear weapon detonate is dwindling. Half the American population was not yet born or were young children when the Soviet Union disappeared. The most anti-nuclear people in the US today are 75, 80 years old.”

Without their expertise to keep us alert, Schlosser fears, the world will be allowed to slide into a form of collective madness founded on denial, a death wish that sees nuclear weapons as no longer a problem. Though both the US and Soviet Union have reduced their stockpiles dramatically, the US today still has 4,650 nuclear weapons, Russia about 3,500, China and France about 400 each and the UK 150. Should just one of those warheads go off, through an accident, or through systems infiltration by a hacker, the consequences would be unthinkable.”

Eric Schlosser on the Secret History of America’s Nuclear Arsenal
In a new book, the ‘Fast Food Nation’ author investigates the many near-misses that could have caused catastrophes
By Ryan Devereaux September 16, 2013

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/q-a-eric-schlosser-on-the-secret-history-of-americas-nuclear-arsenal-20130916#ixzz3yJR4kP2N

EON’s 2015 Report in Pictures &…

…Snapshots of the Resurgent Movement for a Nuclear Free California

Report to Funders
Many, many thanks to those who have supported us through the past year! With great appreciation to our funders, supporters and partner activist organizations, we celebrate our past year’s accomplishments and share some snapshots from our past year’s activities and previews of 2016. Our three main issue areas are Electro-magnetic Health Protection, Denuclearization and Election Protection – the latter, because you can’t have democratic choice on public policy issues if the voting is rigged.

Our work in 2015 began in January with helping to organize, along with Mothers for Peace and many other organizations, the NoNukesCA/West Coast conference to shut down California’s last nuke standing,’ Diablo Canyon. We also provided media support and video documentation for the conference.

“Shutdown Diablo!” Author, activist Harvey Wasserman concludes the NoNukesCA Conference with a rousing affirmation. Wasserman has been a major force in the NoNukes movement from the beginning, and continues his participation in, and reporting on, the NoNukesCA movement at NukeFree.org.

Our work in 2015 concluded with helping to organize and document on video a West Coast speaking tour for Maggie & Arnie Gundersen, founding CEO and Chief Nuclear Engineer, respectively, of Fairewinds Energy Education (Fairewinds.org). We’re pleased and honored to be collaborating with this impactful organization and the wise and wonderful couple that run it.

MB facilitates Day 2 of the NoNukesCA conference. Jim in a promotion for EON’s new documentary SHUTDOWN. A four-way conversation during Maggie and Arnie Gundersen’s Fairewinds 2015 speaking tour of Northern California that EON co-organized with John Bertucci of Fukushima Response and Project Censored at Sonoma State University; Cynthia Papermaster and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; and Bing Gong, Pt. Reyes Books & Cultural Potholes Institute in Pt. Reyes. There were also Fairewinds presentations at Lori Grace’s Sunrise Center in San Rafael, as well as at CalPoly and with the Mothers for Peace in San Luis Obispo. Mary Beth and Jim’s conversation with Maggie and Arnie in Pt. Reyes is now on-line on Vimeo and YouTube as a preview of the EON video series based on Fairewinds tour forthcoming in 2016.
In this “Tell All” segment of the series, Maggie and Arnie discuss their lives as former nuclear energy insiders, the lies they were told and led to believe, and the subsequent impact of speaking truth to power as whistleblowers. Now, as consultants and educators about the risk of atomic power and its radiation leaks, Maggie and Arnie talk about their role in uncovering the operating risks at San Onofre & Diablo.
Author & eco-philosopher Joanna Macy, and EON’s Jim Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan speak in segments of the upcoming EON video series based on the 2015 Fairewinds California speaking tour.

During the year, we also worked to organize and document presentations by leading scientists Ken Buesseler and Tim Mousseau on their investigations of the oceanic and biological impacts of still on-going Fukushima contamination with co-sponsors Bing Gong, Fukushima Response, Pt. Reyes Books and Cultural Potholes Institute. MB’s presentation helped place the scientists’ research in perspective.

We continued our coverage of the dire radioactive waste issues at San Onofre documented by Donna Gilmore of SanOnofreSafety.org. Donna’s invaluable research has revealed key vulnerabilities and gaping holes in current technology for containing the lethal high level waste that will last thousands of years. Donna’s challenges, backed by hard NRC data, holds industry and government decision-makers accountable. Ms. Gilmore is educating, not only activists, but largely unaware industry insiders and government officials both in CA and nationally. Responsibly managing the millions of pounds of highly corrosive deadly long-lasting radioactive waste is crucial to our species and all other species survival, but current Southern Califonia Edison plans are to bury it in thin stainless steel canisters with a cement overpack, 100 ft. from the rising ocean and inches above the water table on the beach in San Clemente surrounded by 8 million people. The technology does not exist to determine depth of cracks in the thin canisters, nor for repairing the canisters, nor for transporting cracked canisters, if there were a safe place to move them.

SanOnofreSafety.org founder Donna Gilmore educates the CCC Commissioners on the risks of SoCalEdison’s radwaste storage plans at San Onofre. A die-in at LIvermore. A teleconference on the TPP.

Revelations of nuclear plans to spend trillions of dollars for on-going nuclear weapons development were announced by Marylia Kelly at the protest at Livermore Lab on Hiroshima’s 70th. anniversary, organized by Western States Legal Foundation and Tri-Valley CAREs. EON’s coverage of this important event was cablecast multiple times. We also note the grassroots push for independent monitoring of radioactivity levels in air, food and water led by Fukushima Response and the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN). Kim Roberson organized FFAN members (EON, Beyond Nuclear and Citizens for Health) for a teleconference to block the TPP, which would further permit radioactivity in food with no labeling.

Lft.: SoCal Edison’s Tom Palmisano presents his company’s San Onofre radwaste storage plan to CA Coastal Commissioners. Ctr.: Mark Lombard, head of the radwaste program at the NRC admits to the CCC that the possibility to monitor and replace failing radwaste canisters like those being used at San Onofre is “not a now thing.” Rt.: “We want to know how you vote!” – Ray Lutz of CitizenOversight.org demands a voice vote from California Coastal Commissioners about to approve SoCalEdison’s seriously flawed San Onofre radioactive waste storage plan – thin stainless steel canisters, inches above the water table in a tsunami zone, on the beach of a rising ocean. What could possibly go wrong?

We have continued to document the unfolding scandal at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and followed closely the work of San Diego attorneys Mike Aguirre and Mia Severson as they press to expose corruption and insist on justice.

Lft.: Attorney Mike Aguirre walks us through his assembled timeline documenting CPUC corruption relating to San Onofre. Ctr.: Former CPUC President Michael Peevey (L) is under investigation. Critics say current President Michael Picker (R) is stonewalling corruption inquiries. Former CPUC President Loretta Lynch says it is now a ‘rogue agency.’ Rt.: Attorney Mia Severson explains how the costs of SoCal Edison’s mismanagement at San Onofre have been passed on to ratepayers.

In 2015 we have continued our collaboration with Dr. Devra Davis and the Environmental Health Trust documenting her and her colleagues’ work on the human health effects of electro magnetic pollution caused by wifi and cell phone technologies. Our team traveled up and down the state covering meetings of the California Coastal Commission, and grassroots conferences such as the one organized by Myla Reson and Ann Doneen of the Malibu Democratic Club.

Lft.: Dr. Devra Davis at the 2015 Bio-Electric Magnetic Society (BEMS) Conference. Ctr.: Coastal Commission debates radwaste storage plans at San Onofre (R) Speakers Paul Frey, Donna Gilmore, Linda Seeley and Harvey Wasserman talk about the risks of Diablo Canyon at a community meeting in Malibu.

In the process we added 54 video reports to our popular YouTube Channel, which now has more than 700 posts, over 4,200 subscribers, and millions of views. Much of this exclusive footage will be used in our documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection, which is now in post-production for release in 2016.

As the year came to a close…

Ca. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (with his eye on a gubernatorial run) is the Chair of the California Coastal Commission. He has called for an environmental review of Diablo’s continued operation. “I don’t think that PG&E, in its quiet moments, would disagree that this may not have been the ideal site for a plant,” Newsom said at the commission’s Dec. 18 meeting. “I just don’t see that this plant is going to survive beyond 2024, 2025,” Newsom said. “I just don’t see that. Now, I absolutely may be wrong, but that’s my punditry. And there is a compelling argument as to why it shouldn’t.”


Also in the works is a potential documentary co-production [funding permitting] based on our years of work with Suzanne Patzer, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman of FreePress.org and the Columbus Institute of Contemporary Journalism on the history of election theft going into the lead-up to the 2016 election and what can be done to prevent it.

Our work is made possible in large part by contributions from people like you. We encourage you to consider a monthly contribution or by including EON in your 2016 giving. Thanks for whatever you can afford – we really appreciate it! EON is a 501 ( c ) 3, tax-exempt organization. Please visit our ‘something-for-every-budget’ Donate Pagehttps://eon3.net/donate.html

In Solidarity,
The EON Team
Mary Beth Brangan, James Heddle, Morgan Peterson

Saving the World from People Trying to Save the World

Maggie and Arnie Gundersen – respectively Founding President and Chief Nuclear Engineer of Fairewinds Energy Education – are former nuclear energy industry insiders who have become consultants and educators about the risks posed by that industry. They provide expert witness services and promote safe energy.

In this conversation with EON’s Mary Beth Brangan and Jim Heddle they talk about those risks, the impact of whistleblowing on their lives, their experience in helping to shutdown San Onofre, and their advice to the people and organizations pushing for the shutdown of Diablo Canyon, California’s ‘Last Nuke Standing.’

They encourage nuclear abolitionists not to demonize those who are mistakenly promoting nuclear energy as a solution to climate change.

This is a segment from a forthcoming EON series based on the Gundersen’s recent speaking tour in California, which included events at Sonoma State and California Polytechnic as well as talks in Pt. Reyes Station, Berkeley and San Luis Obispo (hosted by Mothers for Peace). The program at Sonoma State featured presentations by Arnie and author Majia Nadesan and a conversation between them.

EON helped to organize the tour in cooperation with John Bertucci and co-sponsors Fukushima Response and Project Censored; Bing Gong, Pt. Reyes Books and Cultural Potholes Institute; Cynthia Papermaster and the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; Lori Grace and The Sunrise Center.

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