Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Karl Grossman, Robert Hunziker March 11, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded March 2nd, 2021 Sept. 17, 2016

This March 11th marks the tenth anniversary of the Fukushima tsunami-engendered nuclear disaster. And, what have we learned? Ten years after, even as Japan continues cleaning up the mess, there is no solution to the question of just what to do with irradiated debris already collected, or how to deal with the contaminated cooling water still being generated every day, and now amounting to millions of litres.

In fact, far from getting a handle on the problem, things are only getting worse; as JapanToday reports, “The decades-long challenge to scrap the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant… is becoming more complex as recent remote-controlled probes have highlighted just how damaged the reactors are.

And yet, the nuclear industry is enjoying a renaissance, buoyed by concerns for climate change, and an unlikely partner in NASA and its collaborators who recently landed nukes on Mars.

Karl Grossman is professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and author of, ‘The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet’, and ‘Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power’. He’s also the host of the nationally syndicated television program, Enviro Close-UP with Karl Grossman, and is an associate with the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). Karl’s articles too appear at CounterPunch.org, and Nation of Change, among other places, where I found his latest, ‘Plutonium—the most lethal of all radioactive substances—in space’.

Karl Grossman in the first half.

And; what about the Olympic Games? In 2016, the IOC announced not only would Japan host the 2020 Games, it would do so in the nuclear shadow of Fukushima Prefecture. But, Fate intervened in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic. But, but, the IOC and Japan determined to carry on come pandemic Hell, or atomic high waters, rescheduling Japan 2020, to July 2021. And, despite 80% of Japanese polled saying the games should be postponed again, new Tokyo Olympic organizing committee president, Seiko Hashimoto is reassuring the public it will be safe to for the Games to go on saying, “The situation around coronavirus doesn’t go easy on us.

About Fukushima’s lingering nuclear radiation and the threat it posed, Hashimoto had this to say, [crickets].

Robert Hunziker is an environmental journalist whose climate clarion calls appear in numerous journals and multiple languages around the World and across the internet. He’s also appeared in a variety of media to talk about global climate change and has written extensively about the ongoing aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. I spoke to Robert waaaaaay back in 2016 about the then newly announced winning Tokyo Olympics bid, and Japan’s “progress” cleaning up the World’s worst civilian nuclear disaster.

Robert Humziker revisiting Fukushima in the second half.

But first, Karl Grossman and Earth’s nuclear envoy to Mars.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Steve Poikonen, Karl Grossman January 7th, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition recorded on this date, January 4th/5th, 2021.

Today, Magistrate of the Crown, Vanessa Baraitser stunned Assange case followers, delivering a finding refuting American demands for the WikiLeaks publisher’s extradition to that country to face espionage charges. Despite the ruling, Julian Assange is still held in London’s Belmarsh Prison. Outside the court, Assange’s partner, Stella Moris told reporters now is not the time to celebrate saying, “I had hoped that today would be the day that Julian would come home…Today is not that day, but that day will come soon.

Steve Poikonen is a columnist, broadcaster, and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast available on Patreon.com. Steve’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, and co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil. He and a retinue of activist have returned to Washington, D.C. to make again as public as possible in the American Capitol the miscarriage of justice being perpetrated in England against Julian Assange and all he represents.

Steve Poikonen in the first half.

And; A hundred years old is great for a bottle of fine cognac; okay for a stately home; and fairly good for a collector’s piece of furniture but when it comes to nuclear reactors like romantic interests, you’re probably best to keep them under ninety, and certainly less than a century old. It seems something that needn’t be said but tell that to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who’re currently toying with the idea of extending the operating licenses of atomic power plants from the previously stretched 80 to 100 years.

Karl Grossman is professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and author of, ‘The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet’, and ‘Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power. He’s also an associate of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), whose articles too appear at CounterPunch.org, where I found his latest, ‘Inviting Nuclear Disaster’.

Karl Grossman and the NRC playing doorman to an atomic apocalypse in the second half.

And; sad news to relay: CFUV Radio broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft will no longer maintain the Left Coast Events Bulletin, heard here weekly since 2002. But, you can still catch her show, Plant Powered Radio every Tuesday at 11am pacific time right here at CFUV.ca.

But first up, Steve Poikonen from Washington, D.C. and staying on the Assange case.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/