…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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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 Page – https://eon3.net/donate.html

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

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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If you like EON’s work, you can support it, whatever your budget level, here.

Great News From Frank Egger, who, with Attorney Stephen Volker,has been spearheading this fight:

Hi all,

Here is the press release and actual decision handed down by the court.

This 8 year epic battle has been memorialized both in video by Mary Beth Brangan and Jim Heddle of EON and in the records of state and federal court rooms in San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Sacramento. KGO’s radio show host Joanie Greggains kept our message before the public month after month during her Weekend Health & Fitness Show.

Again, thank you all for your continued support.

Frank

On this blog edition you will find:

PRESS RELEASE
FRANK’S COMMENTS
STEVE’S COMMENTS
EON’S VIDEO REPORTS ON YOUTUBE
COURT DECISION

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release, December 2, 2015 Sacramento

For more information:
North Coast Rivers Alliance (NCRA): Frank Egger (415) 456-6356
Attorney for NCRA: Stephan C. Volker (510) 496-0600

COURT OF APPEAL OVERTURNS STATEWIDE PESTICIDE PROGRAM

Today the California Court of Appeal in Sacramento overturned the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA’s) Light Brown Apple Moth (“LBAM”) pesticide program in response to a lawsuit brought by North Coast Rivers Alliance, Stop the Spray Marin, California Alliance to Stop the Spray, and environmental leaders from the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas. In its 42-page ruling, the Court of Appeal held that CDFA had violated the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) by failing to evaluate environmentally less harmful methods of controlling LBAM such as use of Integrated Pest Management (“IPM”) instead of assuming – erroneously – that only complete “eradication” of LBAM could achieve CDFA’s objective of protecting plants and crops.

The Court agreed with NCRA that CDFA had a duty under CEQA to consider alternatives that would pose less environmental damage while still achieving the LBAM program’s underlying purposes. The Court reversed an earlier ruling by a Sacramento Superior Court judge that had rejected the environmentalists’ lawsuit, and ordered the superior court to grant the relief that the plaintiffs had requested – decertification of CDFA’s EIR and invalidation of its LBAM pesticide program. Had the Court upheld CDFA’s EIR and approval, CDFA would have been allowed to continue placing and spraying toxic pesticides throughout California, including Btk, a so-called “organic” pesticide which kills not only LBAM, but all butterflies and moths, including imperiled species such as the Monarch butterfly.

The plaintiffs praised the Appellate Court’s ruling and expressed hope that CDFA would now reconsider its historic dependence on heavy pesticide use whose “collateral damage” kills fish and wildlife as well as “non-target” insects and birds. Frank Egger, President of the lead plaintiff, North Coast Rivers Alliance, stated that “after eight years of fighting CDFA to prevent its spraying of toxic pesticides on our homes, parks, rivers and forests, we are pleased that the Court of Appeal has ordered CDFA to comply with CEQA and consider less toxic alternatives that will still protect California’s plants and crops.” Mr. Egger added that “We are unaware of any documented case of damage to agricultural production from the Apple Moth. We remain concerned, however, that CDFA may once again stir up unsubstantiated fears rather than follow science and heed the public’s strong preference for safer alternatives to pesticides.”

Stephan Volker, attorney for plaintiffs, stated that “the Court’s unanimous ruling represents a complete victory for the rule of law. It shows that a vigilant public can still be heard by the courts when government and industry ignore them.” Mr. Volker added, “the need for citizens to pay attention, educate their officials, and take action in court when agencies fail to do their job could not be greater. California is experiencing an unprecedented decline in fish and wildlife due to habitat destruction and pollution, including poisoning by some of the same pesticides that CDFA intended to use in its ill-conceived LBAM ‘eradication’ program. But for the courage of the plaintiffs and the Court of Appeal’s careful review, we would be facing continued pesticide use under this unlawful program.”

Frank Egger of North Coast River Alliance & Environmental Attorney Stephen Volker led the litigation.

FRANK’S COMMENTS

Hi Steve and all,

Well, this has been quite a journey. It started in 2007 in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties when their communities and residents were aerially sprayed with the pesticide, Checkmate, to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM). The claim was LBAMs were going to destroy everything in their path from farms to forests. Folks in Santa Cruz and Monterey challenged the spraying and the so called emergency declaration as a reason to bypass the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Both Santa Cruz and Monterey Superior Courts agreed with the plaintiffs and ordered the CDFA to comply and prepare an EIR. Next the CDFA set its sights on the San Francisco Bay Area for spraying Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Napa, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties.

In early 2008 I met with Santa Cruz city councilmembers Ed Porter and Tony Madrigal in order to fully understand what happened down there and in hearing the horror stories, I knew we had to stop it up in the SF Bay Area.

Here in Marin Judi Shils and I organized the first SF Bay Area LBAM community meeting that we held in Corte Madera. We had a number of speakers, including Steve Volker, and as a result we decided we would not be aerially sprayed with pesticides, ever.

We filed in Federal Court in 2008 with some success. The new PEIR was released and after much written and oral testimony that resulted in very little change, we challenged its sufficiency in State Court in Sacramento in 2010 and then it became the subject of a CDFA bait and switch action in the Superior Court courtroom in Sacramento.

Eight years later and 5 years after we first filed in State Court, we can today tell you justice has prevailed. We wanted to let you know immediately that all of your hard work for the past eight years has not been in vain and we want to say thank you for everything, your community meetings, march across the Golden Gate Bridge, picketing, contributions, continuing attendance at functions at critical times and of course the many fundraisers you helped us put on.

The old saying, “never give up” is so true and thank goodness Steve Volker and his crew stayed with us. If you have to go to court, you might as well have the best lawyers on your side.

Email me if you want a copy of the Appellate Court order.

More to come,

Thanks, Frank

STEVE’S COMMENTSSTEVE’S COMMENTS

Good morning.
I am pleased to advise you that we have won our lawsuit against the LBAM spraying program. The Third District Court of Appeal, per Justice Harry Hull, ruled unanimously today that CDFA’s Programmatic Environmental Impact Report on the state’s Light Brown Apple Moth Eradication/Control Program violates CEQA. The Court reversed the Superior Court’s ruling against us, and directed Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly to enter judgment in our favor and to issue a writ of mandate setting aside CDFA’s certification of its unlawful PEIR and approval of this illegal program.

We won on the two most important issues. First, we persuaded the Court that CDFA had engaged in a “bait and switch” whereby it approved an EIR for an eradication program that would end in 7 years, but in fact approved instead a control program that would potentially last forever. Second, the Court agreed with us that CDFA had improperly rejected alternatives that would have less impact on the environment because they would only attempt only to control, rather than eradicate, the LBAM. These two arguments were the heart and soul of our case.

​W​e achieved both of our objectives of invalidating the EIR and overturning CDFA’s approval of this ill-conceived pesticide program. So this is a major victory for you and for all citizens and the fish and wildlife of this state.

Best regards,
Steve

EON’S VIDEO REPORTS ON YOUTUBE

EON’s 62 videos on YouTube helped spread the word & documented the grassroots movement

EON’s YouTube Channel Stop the Spray playlist is here

COURT DECISION
A PDF copy of the Court of Appeal’s ruling is here.

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If you like EON’s work, you can support it, whatever your budget level, here.

Responsibility to Protect All Future Generations
Two New EON video posts

[ Please remember EON on ‘Giving Tuesday’

Greetings Sister & Brother Humans,

As Giving Tuesday rolls around again in the midst of climate change, COP21, the ‘clash of terrorisms’ and rumors of WWIII, the EON Team is continuing to contribute what we can to help raise collective consciousness and cooperative action about our common challenges and our options for a livable future.

We hope you will join the growing list of those who support our efforts by including EON in your generous participation in Giving Tuesday.

EON is a 501 ( c ) 3, tax-exempt organization.
Please visit our ‘something-for-every-budget’ Donate Page – https://eon3.net/donate.html

In Solidarity,

The EON Team ]

These talks by Joanna Macy and Mary Beth Brangan are part of a program organized by Cynthia Papermaster at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, November 22, 2015.

They are preview excerpts from the forthcoming EON series that will highlight the work of Maggie and Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education on their November, 2015 California speaking tour.

Author, teacher and eco-philosopher Joanna Macy talks about the impact of nuclear weapons and energy technologies on our psyches, civilization and DNA, and about our obligation to manage radioactive pollution and waste responsibly on behalf of all future generations.

EON Co-Director Mary Beth Brangan on the shutdown of San Onofre, the movement to decommission Diablo, radioactive waste on-site storage risks, and the national campaign to stop transport of radwaste on our poorly-maintained roads and rail lines…through your town.

For more info: JoannaMacy.net, Fairewinds.org, MothersForPeace.org, NIRS.org and NoNukesCA.net

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If you like EON’s work, you can support it, whatever your budget level, here.

“We’re getting arrested, but they’re the ones committing the crime.”
That was the observation of Phyllis Olin, President of the Western States Legal Foundation, as she prepared to be arrested for protesting 70 years of nuclear bomb-making at California’s Livermore Laboratory, an epicenter of America’s on-going nuclear weapons production complex to which Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Barack Obama has pledged 1 trillion dollars over the next 30 yeears. With no apparent sense of irony, the continued, perpetual upgrading of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, capable of killing everyone and everything on the planet, is called ‘The Life-Extension Program.’

Chizu Hamada, of No Nukes Action, poetically and poignantly describes the connection between nuclear weapons and nuclear power through the story of Japan. [Read her passionate statement below] She concludes “What can we do? We must keep on protesting. We must never give up. Because the spirits of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims are here now, and are wishing the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

Watch for our video report – 70 Years of Nuclear Weapons: At what cost? on cable listings below….

Daniel Ellsberg, Country Joe McDonald, Marylia Kelley, Chizu Hamada, Takashi Tanemori, Wilson Riles, Jr., Patricia St. Onge, Jackie Cabasso, and 300 friends join on the 70th. anniversary of the horrific bombing of Hiroshima at the annual Nonviolent Direct Action Day at Livermore Lab, CA’s Bomb Factory, August 6, 2015.

70 Years of Nuclear Weapons: At what cost?

This video report will air on Channel 26 on Comcast and Channel 99 on AT&T, as well as live stream at: https://cmcm.tv/livecommunity on these dates:

+ Sun 11/1/2015 8:00:00 pm Channel 26
+ Thu 11/5/2015 7:30:00 pm Channel 26
+ Wed 11/11/2015 7:30:00 pm Channel 26

It is also airing now on PCA Channel 26 & U-Verse channel 99:

https://pca.tv/programming/ch-26-schedule/

Schedules are repeated in weekly rotation – Mon/Thurs, Tues/Fri, Wed/Sat, Sunday

Mon/Thurs
7:30 am
11:30 am
3:30 pm (right before Democracy Now !
8:30 pm

Wed/Sat
5:00 am

Talk by Chizu Hamada, NoNukesAction

We Must Never Give Up Working for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

Ohayougozaiasu. Good Morning,

I was born in Japan, and I grew up in a post-war climate that has shaped the way I view the world.

A couple month ago, I had a chance to speak about Japanese militarism. During that talk, I mentioned that dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes. When the Q & A session came, a member of the audience expressed her opinion that Japan didn’t apologize to the USA, so why should the USA have to apologize to Japan. All opinions are valid, but I wondered if this woman really knew how horrible the effects of atomic bombs are. I wondered if she ever had a chance to know the facts of aftermaths of atomic bombings.

Two atomic bombs massacred over 150,000 people instantly. The total of 200,000 people were died in that year. Over 600.000 people have died up to this day due to those bombs. Most of these death were innocent civilians. When people were not instantly killed, they suffered greatly with burns, disfiguration, keloids, and finally took their last breath. Even now after 70 years later aftereffects remain, such as leukemia, A- bomb cataracts, cancers, birth defects, mental retardation. And the fear of birth defects in children will last many generations.

In 2014, Asahi newspaper in Japan researched 58 American major text books for Junior High and High school published from 1949 to 2010. 40 books didn’t even mention about death toll in Nagasaki. Of the books mentioning the number of deaths, more than half reported only half of numbers that Japan provided to United Nations. And only 5 books mentioned that radiation effects last for many years.

For all of us, it is very important to let people know how Atomic bombs are horrible, and inhumane. Atomic bombs should never be built, for they will ruin human kind, animals and the entire Earth.

So Japan has experienced horrible Atomic bombs twice. Did Japan learn from Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Sadly, the answer is NO. When US wanted to sell nuclear power plants as “Atoms for peace”, Japan foolishly bought them. Of course, many Japanese people were very sensitive and afraid of nuclear power plants at that time. But Matutaro Shoriki who was called the “Father of Nuclear Energy” created a big newspaper company and he started to brain wash people by mass media that nuclear energy is cheap, safe and efficient . And the government and he succeeded . Altogether 54 nuclear power plants were built on tiny earthquake-prone islands.

Four and a half years ago when Fukushima Daiichi melted down, we have awakened wild. A report by the congress research concluded this was a man- made accident, an accident that would have been prevented if they had prepared for it, but they didn’t because there has been deep collusion between industry, the Nuclear regulators and the Japanese government.

The Japanese government has been lying to not only to the Japanese but also to the people of the world. As you know , when PM Abe invited the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo, he said “The Fukushima accident is under control.” And this is a lie. It has such a high level of radiation, that humans can’t get close to the core of the reactor, so we don’t know what exactly happened. We don’t know where the melted core is – inside the vessel or outside. Even several robots they sent in, have broken down.
Radiation is seeping out everyday into the air and into the Pacific Ocean. There are more than 100 children diagnosed the thyroid cancers. The evacuees are forced back to live in the contaminated areas. The tragedy has continued and the the daunting task has just began.

When people needed to seek the truth to save the victims and to protest the government’s policies, the government created the Secrecy Law, which was passed in December 2013. This Secrecy Law is so vague that bureaucrats and politicians can designate state secrets to their liking. People seeking state secrets or disclosing state secrets can be punished with up to 5 years in prison.

Then came the reinterpretation of our pacifist constitution. This bill have already approved in the lower Parliament and will pass the upper Parliament in this summer. The law allow our self defence force go out and join the US war. Japan seems as if wants to be prosperous by the war. So Henoko base has been pushed to be built, and Okinawa people’s sufferings never end.

The law has been created and changed to go forward the Japanese militarism. Japan can export war weapons now. Japan can send our military outside to kill people. Now Japan needs the nuclear weapons. Japan has 48 tons of plutonium. These can be created into 6000 nuclear weapons. Japan has been keeping the nuclear power plants for the potential of creating nuclear weapons and to make the threat to the neighboring countries.

That is the reason the Japanese government has never quit nuclear power plants. Even after the Fukushima disaster, they have pushed very hard to restart the next plant. So the Sendai nuclear power plant will restart anytime this month even though it is located near a huge active volcano. And the next and next nuclear power plants are lined up for restarting.

What can we do. We must keep on protesting. We must never give up. Because the spirits of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims are here now, and are wishing the abolition of nuclear weapons.

For more information:
TRI-Valley Cares
Western State Legal Foundation

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For more on new nuclear weapons development see:
Obama pledged to reduce nuclear arsenal, then came this weapon

To see what a nuclear bomb in your neighborhood would do see this interactive map site https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ by Alex Wellerstein at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Here’s a PDF of NukeWatch New Mexico’s Nuclear Budget analysis

Saturday, November 21, 7 to 9 pm
FREE EVENT – DONATIONS APPRECIATED
Dance Palace (Church Space) 5th & B Streets, Pt. Reyes Station

Former nuclear industry executive turned nuclear safety advocate ARNIE GUNDERSEN has over 40-years of nuclear power engineering experience, gave testimony in the investigation of Three Mile Island, and began studying the catastrophic failure at the Dai-lchi Nuclear Power Plant the day of the first explosion. Chief Nuclear Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, he has produced expert reports on California nukes & numerous informative videos & articles available at Fairewinds.org

IN CONVERSATION WITH MARY BETH BRANGAN
Co-Director Ecological Options Network – EON

Co-sponsored by Pt. Reyes Books, Fukushima Response, Cultural Potholes & EON – the Ecological Options Network
DOWNLOAD POSTER PDF

Contact Bing Gong binggong@sonic.net 415-663-1380

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SISTER PROGRAMS AT OTHER VENUES – Sonoma State & Berleley

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Sonoma State University In Rohnert Park on Wednesday, Nov. 18:

“World in Danger: Fukushima”
Arnie Gundersen in conversation with Professor Majia Nadesan, author of “Fukushima and the Privatization of Risk”

Student Union Building – Ballroom D – 7:00 PM November 18th
Sonoma State University – 1801 East Cotati Ave, Rohnert Park, CA
$10 donation at the door, no one turned away – students FREE – Campus parking $5.00

A Fukushima Response Public Education Event
Co-sponsored by: Sociology Social Justice & Activism Club, Sociology of Media Class, Peace Roots Alliance, Ecological Options Network & Project Censored

DOWNLOAD POSTER PDF

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BERKELEY:
World in Danger: From Fukushima to California

Sunday, November 22 at 7:00pm
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. @ Bonita, Berkeley

Featuring Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education Nuclear Engineer; Joanna Macy, Ecophilospher and Buddhist Scholar; MaryBeth Brangan of EON – the Ecological Options Network; Gar Smith, author of “Nuclear Rouletter”; Vic Sadot, singer-songwriter.

Sponsored by Berkeley Fellowship Social Justice Comm., Code Pink: Women for Peace, Fukushima Response Bay Area, Abalone Alliance Safe Energy Clearinghouse, S.F. Occupy Forum, BARC (Barkers Aggitating for Reactor Closure), Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter, Sunflower Alliance, NoNukesCa.net

Contact: cynthia_papermaster@yahoo.com, 510-365-1500

DOWNLOAD POSTER PDF

Scientists for We the People
What are the impacts on wildlife, sealife and human health of the on-going Fukushima nuclear disaster?

Governments are not adequately monitoring the continuing contamination and are ignoring the issue.

The global nuclear establishment attempts to downplay and deny any risks with bogus propaganda ploys like ‘radiophobia’ (its all in your head) and ‘hormesis’ (chronic radiation exposure is good for you).

However, independent scientists are stepping into the monitoring, research and information breach. On Sept. 2, 2015, EON teamed up with local community organizer Bing Gong, Fukushima Response Campaign co-founder John Bertucci and Steve Costa and Kate Levinson of Pt. Reyes Books to host the first community program nationally to bring together two top scientists on the subject. Here are videos of the three presentations that resulted. [Stay tuned for the next installment of this series in November with nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education.]

Also linked to below are reports on a study of thyroid cancer in Fukushima kids.

Pt. 1 – Fukushima Contamination – Dr. Ken Buesseler
“Fukushima from Two Sides of the Pacific”
Marine biologist Dr. Ken Buesseler, is Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity.

Introduced by Mary Beth Brangan, Co-Director of EON, Dr. Buesseler reviews his findings so far in his on-going citizen-funded project monitoring the continuing radioactive contamination from Japan’s Fukushima triple nuclear meltdown.

Within months of the Fukushima disaster, Ken Buesseler assembled an international research cruise to sample the waters surrounding the nuclear plant. Incredibly high amounts of radioactivity were detected and more has flowed into the Pacific each day since. To date, important fisheries remain closed due to cesium levels above Japanese limits for seafood. Ocean currents are bringing the flood of radioactive particles released from Fukushima beginning in March of 2011 and constantly pouring out since, to the West Coast. Buesseler now monitors over 50 sites along the West Coast, from Alaska to Mexico, with citizen-scientist funding and participation.

Radioactive Cesium from Fukushima was detected in ocean water samples in June of 2014 off the coast of Eureka, in northern California and in April 2015 close to shore in Ucluelet BC, as well as 1.8 miles offshore from Del Mar in Southern California, also in April 2015. Buesseler only measures for Cesium, since it’s easiest to test for, but many other deadly radionuclides are being emitted from Fukushima as well and are probably also in the current.

[ Editors’ note: Buesseler’s relatively unconcerned stance in this presentation appeared to change a bit the week after this talk when he spoke in Canada after the Japanese typhoon caused massive flooding of more radioactive contamination into the Pacific from Fukushima. see: Radioactivity In Our Ocean: Fukushima & Its Impact On The Pacific Streamed live on Sep 14, 2015

https://nuclear-news.net/category/2-world/north-america/canada-north-america/

Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Sep 14, 2015:

1:02:15 — Buesseler: “There have been ongoing releases… being maintained at higher levels… The groundwater is almost impossible to stop, so that will continue for decades… very hard to contain. Ice dams, things you can engineer to stop them, have never been done on this scale before, so it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen.”
1:09:30 — Audience Q&A: “Can anyone — scientists, physicists, anyone — really estimate the levels that are coming out of Fukushima on a daily basis? This rain event… how could anyone possibly estimate what is going… it’s disingenuous … to make these kind of assumptions — that it ‘probably’ won’t be a problem in the future. How can anyone say that? It’s never happened before… I don’t know where these predictions can really be nailed down, and was wondering your opinion on that as a couple of ‘good scientists’ (laughs).”
1:11:00 — Buesseler: “Fair points. It’s never happened before, it’s somewhat unpredictable and dynamic… There’s certainly not enough information. I was very frustrated after the rain event to find almost no information about the amount and levels that were in the ocean… There are some monitoring sites right in the harbor, and you can actually see the level of cesium go up from 1,000 of my units to 3,000 — so there was an impact. How long that’s going to continue? I can’t tell you… How it’s going to change in the future? We hope it gets back down to the levels that were near zero, but it never will be. It’s going to be — for decades, anyway — a site of continuous release… that’s what keeps me up at night, are continuous leaks that could happen at that site.”]

Pt. 2 – Fukushima Contamination – Dr. Tim Mousseau
“Bio-Impacts of Chernobyl & Fukushima”
Evolutionary biologist Dr. Tim Mousseau shares his alarming findings from his unique research on the biological effects of radiation exposure to wildlife, plants, trees, birds and insects from the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl & Fukushima. He is finding similar effects in both disaster areas.

Pt. 3 – Fukushima Contamination: Neither Panic nor Denial – Mary Beth Brangan
EON’s Mary Beth Brangan explains why, despite Buesseler’s attempt to reassure against concern about Fukushima radioactivity, there is ample reason to become concerned, informed and activated.

Brangan explains why the independent scientific evidence so far strongly supports applying the Precautionary Principle in crafting the appropriate public policy response to radioactive fallout from the on-going Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan as well from continuing accidents and severe weather impacting all nuclear sites.

She calls for international solidarity with the plight of heartlessly dispossessed & ignored Fukushima refugees, and the explosive, youth-led current Japanese grassroots campaign against the militarism and nuclear brinkmanship of the US-supported Japanese Abe regime.

She encourages people to support independent research scientists’ projects and to join the growing movement to shut down California’s own ‘Fukushima-in-Waiting,’ PG&E’s aging Diablo Canyon, located close to 13 intersecting earthquake faults, in a tsunami zone not far south of San Francisco – the state’s ‘last nuke standing.’

Here are reports on a recent study of thyroid cancers in Fukushima children.

Thyroid Cancer in Children Increases 30-Fold in Fukushima, New Study Says
by Beyond Nuclear’s Cindy Folkers

A study examining children who were 18 years and younger at the onset of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe found an increase in thyroid cancers, as predicted by World Health Organization (WHO) initial dose assessments.

Lead researcher Toshihide Tsuda, an epidemiologist at Okayama University, says “[t]his is more than expected and emerging faster than expected … ” by either initial WHO predictions or studies of thyroid cancers after the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in 1986. Tsuda was urged by international experts and the publishing journal to publish his study as soon as possible due to its potential implications for public health. Read more

Pediatric Thyroid Cancer after the Fukushima Accident 10/8/15
Published on Oct 8, 2015 on MsMilkeyTheClown’s YouTube channel

She says, “I edited the original video below from 1hour 24 minutes into this ENGLISH ONLY translation version of 38min 41sec. Link to original here called: Toshihide Tsuda: “Pediatric Thyroid Cancer after the Fukushima Accident” https://youtu.be/mIW75z7W4JI Toshihide Tsuda: Professor, Graduate School of Environmental and Life Science, Okayama University”

Here is the full original video:
Toshihide Tsuda: “Pediatric Thyroid Cancer after the Fukushima Accident”

Here’s NBC’s coverage:
Thyroid Cancer Rates Higher in Kids Near Fukushima Nuke Plant – Study

For more info:
www.biol.sc.edu/faculty/mousseau
Fukushima Response Campaign on Facebook
MothersForPeace.org
NoNukesCA.net
FoE.org
OurRadioactiveOcean.org

Guest scientists Ken Buesseler & Tim Mousseau
in conversation with Mary Beth Brangan, EON Co-director.
Sponsors: Point Reyes Books, Ecological Options Network,
Fukushima Response
Organizer: Bing Gong, Producer of Post Carbon Radio on KWMR-FM

[Download poster PDF here]

300 tons of radioactively contaminated water continue to pour daily into the Pacific from the triple meltdown at Fukushima. Formerly rich farms around the plant remain uninhabitable. What levels of oceanic contamination are detectible so far? Has it reached the West Coast? What are the effects on wild life in the contaminated areas?

Learn from two eminent scientists about their important efforts to track and document the on-going impacts of the nuclear disaster in Japan.

Ken Buesseler, Marine Biologist, Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity
Within months of the Fukushima disaster, Ken Buesseler assembled an international research cruise to sample the waters surrounding the nuclear plant. To date, important fisheries remain closed due to cesium levels above Japanese limits for seafood. Ocean currents are bringing the radioactive particles released from Fukushima to the West Coast. Buesseler now monitors over 50 sites along the West Coast, from Alaska to Mexico, with citizen-scientist funding and participation. Radioactive cesium from Fukushima was detected in ocean water samples in August 2014 off the coast of northern California and in April 2015, in Ucluelet B.C.

Tim Mousseau, Research Biologist, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
Professor Mousseau has studied the impacts of radioactive contaminants on biological communities in the Chernobyl region of Ukraine and Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. His research suggests that many species of birds, plants and animals have experienced direct toxicity from the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. This mutational load has had dramatic consequences for development, reproduction and survival, and the effects observed at individual and population levels are having significant impacts on these regions.

Free, but donations gratefully received

Check out the preview of EON’s forthcoming documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukukshima Connection at ShutdownDoc.TV
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Litigating Nuclear Energy’s Toxic Legacy
[cross-posted on NoNukesCA.net ]

As the harm radioactive contamination does to human health and the environment becomes more widespread and undeniable, the international nuclear industry is beginning to face a barrage of litigation its victims around the world.

On Friday, July 17, 2015, in Rohnert Park California, a delegation of South Korean and Japanese litigants on a tour of the West Coast teamed up with a US attorney to report on the progress of their respective lawsuits.

Entitled ‘Taking Nuclear to Court in Japan, Korea and the USA,’ the program was co-sponsored by Project Censored, Fukushima Response, EON, and Sonoma Peace & Justice Center.

In this edition we present the first three segments of the program. Please watch this space for more to come.

Choi Seungkoo is the Secretary General of No Nukes Asia Action (NNAA), a Japanese nonprofit organization that recently filed the Reactor Suppliers Lawsuit to hold companies that profited from Fukushima’s nuclear operations responsible for the continuing nuclear disaster (GE, Hitachi, Toshiba). The suit has almost 4000 plaintiffs from Japan, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan, Russia, the US, Canada, and Malaysia.

Attorney Charles Bonner gives an update on his class action litigation on behalf of military personnel harmed by exposure to Fukushima fallout during an aid mission. The suit targets the plant operator and its manufacturers.

More to come:

In the forthcoming segments, Lee Jin Seop talks about his wife’s case and other lawsuits that have been filed in S. Korea, seeking to establish judicial accountability for the dangers of nuclear power, and compensation for the cancers it can cause.

Rev. Deasoo Lee, the pastor of the Shinano-machi Church in Tokyo, points to the role faith communities can play in educating their members about the dangers of nuclear power.

Here’s EON’s background coverage on the USS Reagan lawsuit.

Back in December of 2013 we posted a video report on sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier suing TEPCO, the Fukushima Dai-ichi operator for covering up the meltdowns and thereby exposing young US service people aboard the USS Reagan to horrendous amounts of radioactivity as they were providing humanitarian aide to Japanese victims of the tsunami and earthquake. They were aboard the USS Reagan aircraft carrier miles offshore directly in the blowing airborne plume of high radioactivity while drinking and bathing in highly radioactive water.

In the video, plaintiffs Lindsay Cooper and Mathew Bradley, together with their attorneys Charles Bonner, Paul Garner and Cabral Bonner reported their experiences and laid out their case. At that time the future of their case seemed in doubt. But, despite delays, the $1 Billion class action lawsuit against TEPCO is now moving forward.

According to a recent news report, in June, 2015 Judge Janis Sammartino finally accepted arguments for the suit to proceed in the United States. Having initially rejected the suit in October, 2014, Sammartino dismissed TEPCO arguments that the case should move to Japan for jurisdictional reasons. She ruled: “Both the U.S. and Japan have an interest in having this suit heard within their forum. Tepco has pointed to several reasons supporting dismissal of the present claims, and the court concedes that some of Tepco’s arguments are persuasive. However, the reasons for maintaining jurisdiction of this case are more compelling, namely the parties’ strong connection with this forum.”

Sammartino reasoned that, “In light of the parties’ connections to the U.S. and the global nature of the harm,” the case should proceed in the United States (emphasis added). On June 25th, Tsuyoshi Takahashiin, the Executive Officer in charge of TEPCO’s Safety and Quality of Nuclear Power & Plant Siting Division, resigned. According to the report,

The accusations have expanded to include American companies, like General Electric, that were complicit in the design of the facility. Negligence in nuclear power facilities has endangered the entire planet. TEPCO, finally, seems to have begun to accept their responsibility. The quiet resignation of one Executive Officer in the middle of a major lawsuit in a foreign jurisdiction may indicate that some accountability is being taken.

In the meantime, 250 named sailors, and up to 70,000 other Americans may have been placed in direct harm from the inaction and negligence of TEPCO. Krill, anchovies, starfish, jellyfish, birds and other creatures that depend on the Pacific Ocean ecosystem for survival are also, coincidentally, showing evidence of expected results from excessive radiation. On the bright side, TEPCO’s profits continue to impress investors. The fallout from this lawsuit may not just cost one TEPCO executive his job. Bonner’s lawsuit may be a cancer for the international economy, and a cancer for the Trans-Pacific Partnership also, as inhabitants of several nations are affected by the negligence of one company in one nation. source

Attorney Charles Bonner will be giving an update on the case in Petaluma, CA this Friday at an event co-sponsored by EON along with Project Censored, the Fukushima Response Campaign, and the Sonoma Peace & Justice Center. Joining him in “Taking Nuclear to Court in Japan & Korea” will be guest speakers from Japan and Korea Lee Jin Seop, Choi Seungkoo and Rev. Deasoo Lee, who will report on a landmark nuclear suit in Korea.

In October of 2014, a South Korean court ruled in favor of a claim by Park Geum-sun, that her thyroid cancer was caused by radiation from six nuclear power plants located 7.7 kilometers from her home. In their determination that radiation from an operating nuclear power plant is directly related to increased incidence of thyroid cancer in nearby communities, these judges have set a critical legal precedent. Husband of the successful plaintiff, Lee Jin Seop will talk about his wife’s case and other lawsuits that have been filed, also seeking to establish judicial accountability for the dangers of nuclear power, and compensation for the cancers it can cause.

For instance, Choi Seungkoo is the Secretary General of No Nukes Asia Action (NNAA), a Japanese nonprofit organization that recently filed the Reactor Suppliers Lawsuit to hold companies that profited from Fukushima’s nuclear operations responsible for the continuing nuclear disaster (GE, Hitachi, Toshiba). He has organized this delegation’s visit to the U.S. to inform us, and urge support for his international class action suit, because the ongoing radioactive contamination coming from the still unresolved Fukushima disaster affects not only those in Japan and Korea but all other nations bordering the Pacific Ocean as well.

Lee Jin Seop and Choi Seungkoo will be joined and introduced by Rev. Deasoo Lee who has lectured on the dangers of nuclear power at the Shinano-machi Church in Tokyo, which is where the Reactor Suppliers Lawsuit was launched at a press conference in November, 2012. As Mr. Seungkoo explains: “I belong to the protestant church and 30% of the key members of NNAA are Christians. We are a group of citizens wishing to live in a world free from nukes, both weapons and nuclear power. As for today, we have almost 4000 plaintiffs of the lawsuit from Japan, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan, Russia, the US, Canada, Malaysia, etc.”

“Taking Nuclear to Court in Japan & Korea” begins at 6:30pm, Friday July 17, 2015 at the Cross & Crown Luthern Church, 5475 Snyder Lane in Rohnert Park, California. This FREE event is sponsored by: FUKUSHIMA RESPONSE, FukushimaResponse.org – Project Censored, projectcensored.org – Ecological Options Network, eon3.net – Sonoma County Peace & Justice Center, peaceandjusticesonomaco.org

For more information & interviews contact: Chizu Hamada 510-495-5952
Link to more on the successful Korean Lawsuit – https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/atomicage/2014/10/21/south-korean-court-ruling-could-spur-nuclear-power-plant-suits-via-the-wall-street-journal/
Link to more on the class action Reactor Suppliers Lawsuit – https://bulatlat.com/main/2014/01/10/international-lawsuit-vs-fukushima-nuke-makerssuppliers-being-readied/
TEPCO Executive Resigns as Navy Lawsuit Steams Ahead by Alex Freeman • July 11, 2015 https://thefifthcolumnnews.com/2015/07/tepco-executive-resigns-as-navy-lawsuit-steams-ahead/
More residents joining lawsuits seeking damages from South Korean nuclear plants – https://ajw.asahi.com/article/asia/korean_peninsula/AJ201507150007