NH #694: Court Rules Plutonium Pit Production at LANL, SRS Breaks Federal Law – Jay Coughlin + IUFF “COOLEST FILM FESTIVAL!”

BREAKING NEWS: MARY OLSON IS OKAY!

Mary Olson of Gender and Radiation Impact Project (genderandradiation.org) is alive and well! She lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and we hadn’t heard from her since before Hurricane Helene ripped through that town on September 27. As of October 9, Cindy Folkers of Beyond Nuclear reports that Mary is FINE! She has water, food, cell phone, but no internet c”onnection. She has been hosting folks from the community at her house for showers and laundry services. She is very lucky considering the circumstances of others – and we are VERY relieved for her safety. Information was received just as Nuclear Hotseat #694 was posting. 


Mary Olson (l) and Nuclear Hotseat’s Libbe HaLevy at the Nuclear Waste Summit in 2019.

This Week’s Featured Interview:

  • U.S. district court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled last week that the US Department of Energy. – DOE – and its semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration – NNSA – violated the National Environmental Policy act by failing to properly consider alternatives before proceeding with their plans to produce plutonium pits – the core components of all nuclear weapons – at both Los Alamos National Lab in Santa Fe, NM, and Savannah River Site in South Carolina. This ruling comes as a result of a coalition of plaintiffs consisting of Savannah. River Site Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and Tri-Valley CARES near the Lawrence Livermore Labs in northern California.

    Jay Coughlin is Executive Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, which has since 1999 successfully addressed nuclear weapons issues across the spectrum of disarmament, nonproliferation, open government, and environmental concerns. Here, explains what brought this lawsuit regarding plutonium pits about, what the ruling means, and what’s next.

    I spoke with Jay Coughlin on October 7, 2024.

Jay Coughlin, Executive Director, Nuclear Watch New Mexico

Links from Featured Story:

International Uranium Film Festival Named to 25 COOLEST FILM FESTIVALS, 2024 by MovieMaker Magazine!

The International Uranium Film Festival is honored to have been named as one of the 2024 COOLEST FILM FESTIVALS by MovieMaker Magazine. They had this to say about it:

  • You’ve never seen two people get more done than the life and project-partner duo Márcia Gomes de Oliveira and Norbert G. Suchanek, who run the International Uranium Film Festival in deep collaboration with activists around the world. The festival has its grand event in Rio, but also does an extensive U.S. tour in regions impacted by uranium-related industry. Inevitably, folks wonder whether there are enough films on the subject to warrant a festival. The answer is yes. This, of course, is because the issue is expansive, impacting all 50 U.S. states and many more corners of the world than most folks realize. From the Navajo Nation to Las Vegas to Chicago and many places between, this spirited DIY art, advocacy, and activism project brings folks together in a space of support, education, shared outrage, and a good time. The International Uranium Film Festival is a refreshing example of what activism and advocacy can be: inclusive, expansive, and celebratory.

To learn more about the award and the other festivals (it’s an amazing group!), go to: https://www.moviemaker.com/coolest-film-festivals-2024/

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

Cameras meant to guide the removal of radioactive debris from Fukushima Daiichi have again failed. At least this time Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) admits that they fried from too much radioactivity. So what is TEPCO’s plan to “fix” these errant cameras? Can you say, “reboot?”

Links:

Stop Japan Working Group 2023 – JNC-TV – LINKS to videos: