Reviewed by Mary Beth Brangan, James Heddle, EON

An Enlightening “Future History”

Set in the year 2032 and told through the eyes of fictional newspaper journalist Michael Powell of the ‘East Bay Times,’ novelist Roger Gloss’s prescient cautionary tale opens with Powell’s dispatch covering a State-of-the-State speech by Governor Teresa Morales.

Her address is given on March 24 of that near-future year “exactly six months from the catastrophic explosion at the decommissioned San Onofre Generating Station (SONGS)… with wide-ranging and devastating consequences that have plunged California and the nation into unprecedented chaos.”

In a powerful and dramatic, yet slim volume of just 21 pages, novelist Gloss has penned a stark, evidence-based speculative narrative of a very possible near-future event designed to catalyze preventative official and public action in time.

In an introductory note, Gloss affirms,

“The intent of this ‘future history’ is not to frighten readers, although that might be a useful side effect. Rather, I hope that by laying out a kind of worst-case scenario to alert local government officials, local environmentalists and the broader public to the looming threat of lethal nuclear waste currently sitting in our own backyard, as well as enlist passionate support at all levels at meaningful steps to manage it.”

Gloss is the author of six published novels, including his latest, New California, currently available on Amazon. His website is here.

A Reality-Based, Accurate Situational Analysis

Framed as retrospective eye-witness accounts by main character, reporter Powell and his key informant, Neal Prakash – the evacuated Mayor of Irvine – Powell’s narrative is grounded in the actual, exiting facts-in-and-on-the-ground at San Onofre.

“The nuclear waste from the shuttered power plant was stored in 135 thin-walled steel canisters. To break this down, 62 canisters … were first deployed starting in 2003, while SONGS was still generating power. These canisters were stored horizontally, above ground.

“After the plant was shuttered in 2013, more spent fuel rods were transferred from the cooling ponds to 73 canisters manufactured by Holtec. The Holtec canisters are a mere 5/8-inch and do not meet ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) standards for nuclear pressure vessels. Southern California Edison was granted a waiver by the federal NRC to use these canisters. They are stored vertically in vented siloes, only partially below ground, and even closer to the shoreline than the NUHOMS array. They are subject to through-wall cracks caused by corrosion, and there was no way to inspect them, repair them, or move them to a safer location. A breach was inevitable at ‘some point’ (very likely within the 25-year implied by the manufacturer’s warranty,) along with the Chernobyl-style release of deadly radiation – notably Cesium-134, Cesium-137, Plutonium 239 and more – that resulted from just a single canister. It was a no-brainer for materials scientists and nuclear experts to surmise that stormwater and/or seawater flooded the canister area and either clogged the cooling air vents of at least one canister, penetrated a developing through-wall crack or both. From recent drone footage (humans cannot go near the site) it appears that the explosion in turn caused a breach of several nearby canisters, triggering the release of still more radiation, spreading it more rapidly and widely. So, four more Chernobyls, more or less….

“To give more perspective, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster created an exclusion zone of 1000 square miles, which ironically, nearly matches Orange County 948 square miles….

“Anyone living within 50 miles or more of ground zero would be under threat – more than ten million people in Orange, Los Angeles, and San Diego Counties. The entire region could potentially become a no-man’s land unfit for human habitation – all residential and commercial properties condemned and unusable. At a bare minimum, all of Orange County fell within the exclusion zone. Everything that made Southern California desirable – the beaches, the mountains, world class colleges and universities, venues of art, culture, entertainment and recreation, even Disneyland – much of it forever off limits.”

In Powell’s account, the Governor estimated property losses at a total of $20 trillion. Not to mention the human trauma and human suffering, which Powell and his wife experienced themselves, losing their home, which no insurance covered, and having to relocate with family in Oakland. He reports,

“The entire population – millions of people – needed to be evacuated immediately, but of course, that was impossible, and local police, sheriff and emergency services had no plan to do so. Everyone was on their own to evacuate….”

Powell’s report continues,

“While struggling to evacuate in the hours and days following the explosion, many suffered from radiation sickness – chronic fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite. Longer term, radiation exposure causes cancer of all kinds, so the bulk of the population that evacuated are also at risk of future illness and shorter lifespan.”

We invite you to explore the rest of author Gloss’s realistic and enlightening narrative yourself – including his key informant, Irvine Mayor Neal Prakash’s description-from-exile of post-disaster conditions in his abandoned city, including squatting in deserted houses by homeless, impoverished and displaced disaster victims from elsewhere, the looting, toxic environment and high crime levels experienced by those unwilling or unable to evacuate the once idyllic, model planned community of Irvine.

It is not a pretty picture that Gloss’s sobering ‘future narrative’ gives us, but a potentially life-and property-saving wake-up call for those with the courage to confront and act upon its warnings.

It is a valuable public service for which readers should be grateful. We recommend it highly.

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Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle co-direct EON, the Ecological Options Network.  The multi-award winning EON feature documentary SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy, was chosen as the opening film in the 13^th annual Global Nonviolent Film Festival, where it also received the Organizers’ Award for ‘BEST ACTUALITY SUBJECT – Feature Documentary’,  and is available for viewing worldwide. The film was directed by Brangan, Heddle. and Morgan Peterson, who also served as editor.  SOS is a transgenerational co-creation of two senior filmmakers and a millennial mom with two young daughters. For information, please visit the SOS website.

A Civilizational Travel Guide to Holistic Situational Awareness

Posted by James Heddle – EON

Credit: Reset Space Uptopian/Unsplash

A Civilizational Death Wish?

In this period of intensified collective electile dysfunction, perhaps it is an opportune time to tap our society’s ideological reset button. [Oh, would that it were that easy!]

Recent posts from various sources bring that home in spades.

Natural Weather Or Not? – A Frequently Unasked Question

“We’re laying the foundation for the creation of a weather satellite that will permit man to determine the world cloud layer, and ultimately to control the weather. And he who controls the weather will control the world.” – Former President Lyndon B. Johnson.

That’s putting it right out there. The recent devastating hurricane in the Southeast – that is sure to have multi-vector impacts far beyond the region – raises a question in some informed minds that probably triggers the ‘crazy conspiracy theory’ thought –blocker in the majority of readers and viewers.

For those with the cognitive bandwidth to consider them, three recent reports from Dane Wiggingon at Geo-Engineering Watch will add another dimension to their situational perceptions.

Hurricane Helene And Frequency Transmissions, 90 Second Alert

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Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News, September 28, 2024, # 477 ( Dane Wigington )

Geoengineering Affects You, Your Environment, and Your Loved Ones

A Genetic Genocide Agenda Documented

Two among many:

Renowned American Physician Raises Alarm over EPIDEMIC of Skyrocketing Cancer Cases

It’s a “Killer” Vaccine Worldwide: Japanese Researchers Say Side Effects of COVID Vaccines Linked to 201 Types of Diseases

Nuclear Triple Treat Escalation

22 countries recently joined in a pledge to triple world nuclear energy production by 2050, thus tossing a life-preserver to a nuclear energy industry that has been in decline since 2002 and is fighting for its life against surging solar, wind and energy storage, using every specious cover story its PR flacks can come up with – from climate change, to crypto currency mining, to projected electricity demand from proliferating AI data centers – to hide its inextricable links to weapons proliferation and radioactive waste production.

This, despite the facts that it is too slow and too expensive to be a ‘solution’ to climate change, and too costly without government support and deregulation to be commercially competitive.

As commentator Alfred Meyer explains the efforts to bi-partisan attempts to perpetuate the whole ‘Nuclear Enterprise’ “Its All About the Bomb.”

Alfred Meyer has identified: “…[W]hat is really driving the entire nuclear enterprise are nuclear weapons and the nuclear navy. And the rest of any discussion is really false advertising promises – you could say, its diversionary tactics. It doesn’t have to be cheap, it doesn’t have to be clean, it doesn’t have to be safe. And we don’t really have to worry about the waste. And it doesn’t have to solve climate change, because what it’s [really] doing is making nuclear weapons.”

See also: – How-they-done-it Documentary by Jan Haaken, Documentary Filmmaker, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Portland State University: An Atomic Bamboozle – The False Promise of A Nuclear Renaissance

SCOTT RITTER: On a Highway to Hell

“Nuclear weapons offer an illusion of security. By allowing the U.S. nuclear posture to shift from deterrence to employment, there will be a scenario where the U.S. will use nuclear weapons. And then it’s lights out.”

Three Mile Island considers nuclear restart as Pa. lawmakers look to new tech to meet demand

AI Is Fueling A ‘Nuclear Renaissance.’ Bill Gates And Jeff Bezos Are In The Mix.

Microsoft Targets Nuclear to Power AI Operations

The sharp growth in big data centers to handle AI demands has an unexpected beneficiary: nuclear power. Source: Investors Daily – Jon Krause

Holtec Has Reached an Agreement with Entergy to Acquire Indian Point Energy Center After the Last of the Three Reactors Shuts Down

Recycling Gives New Purpose to Spent Nuclear Fuel 

88,000 tons of radioactive waste – and nowhere to put it

Can you handle it?

Welcome to the United States of Nuclear Dementia…

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James Heddle is co-founder with CEO Mary Beth Brangan of EON, the Ecological Options Network. The multi-award winning EON feature documentary SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy, was chosen as the opening film in the 13^th annual Global Nonviolent Film Festival and is available for viewing worldwide. The film was directed by Brangan, Heddle. and Morgan Peterson, who also served as editor. 

For information, please visit the SOS website .

Source:  Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network

[ Editors’ note:

Hi Friends,

We’ve been helping behind the scenes with this important project. We’re proud members of the FFAN Alliance and are co-sponsoring this event. 

Please register and attend if you can – it’s Monday at 11:00 am PST.- MB & J ]

As CounterPunch, CBC and other sources report, Japan is dumping millions more gallons of irradiated water into the Pacific from Fukushima. What effect will that have on our coast and seafood?  Plus contaminated food, too radioactive to be sold in Japan, can legally be sold here in the U.S. 

In 2013 the FFAN alliance (we’re members) filed a petition to the FDA for guidelines to be more protective of human health. It has been ignored.  The FFAN alliance members are now asking Congress to direct the FDA and the EPA to fulfill their missions to deal with this issue.

You’re invited to attend a groundbreaking webinar with Congress and leading experts about an under-recognized but growing problem we need to confront:

Radioactive Contamination of US Food and Water and What Congress Can Do About It

 Monday July 15, 2pm Eastern time

WHAT? Join us for an online expert briefing for members of Congress and their staffs, relevant agencies, advocates, journalists, and concerned citizens on the growing problem of radioactive contamination of US food and water and what Congress can do about it.  The briefing features leading researchers and advocates and is organized by the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (a project of the National Institute for Science Law & Public Policy) and co-sponsored by the NGOs Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Health, Ecological Options Network, Food and Water Watch, San Clemente Green, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR National as well as PSR’s Greater Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Bay Area chapters).

WHO?  Distinguished experts and leaders presenting at the briefing include:

·      US Congresswoman Cori Bush – Representing Missouri’s 1^st Congressional District (invited)

·       Dr. Arjun Makhijani — Nuclear engineer, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, author of Exploring Tritium Dangers, member of an independent scientists’ panel commissioned by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to review radioactive dumping from Fukushima into the Pacific

·       Prof. Bob Richmond — University of Hawaii Marine Biologist, expert in biological uptake of radiation in the oceans, member of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat panel on Fukushima

·       Kimberly Roberson — Project Director, Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN). She served on the board of National Association of Nutrition Professionals and helped organize the FFAN Coalition which petitioned FDA for better food regulations​ following the Fukushima disaster.

·       James Gormley — President and Senior Policy Advisor of Citizens for Health and a leading consumer health advocate

·       Cindy Folkers — Radiation and Health Hazard Specialist, Beyond Nuclear (moderating)

WHERE & WHEN?  The briefing will be held via Zoom on Monday, July 15 at 2pm Eastern time.  Registration is required.  For further information and to register, go to https://nislappdc.org/ffan-congressional-briefing/.

WHY? Radioactive contamination stands to get worse due to planned ongoing releases of radioactive wastewater from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean. Despite this, there are currently no binding FDA standards, very little testing or monitoring that has been made public, a lack of transparency about any such testing, and no labeling or other information available to US consumers about radioactivity in their food that can guide their choices. Food from Japan that exceeds Japan’s radioactivity standards and can’t be sold there is nonetheless sold and served to US consumers here and to US service men and women overseas. Congress can and should use its oversight of the FDA and other powers to confront and ameliorate this growing public health threat.

Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle co-direct EON, the Ecological Options Network. EON is a co-sponsor of this event.  The EON feature film documentary SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy, by filmmakers Brangan, Morgan Peterson and Heddle, was awarded the Grand Jury Award for Feature Documentary at last October’s Hollywood Awareness Film Festival.  SOS has also garnered the International Uranium Film Festival’s award for Best Educational Documentary as well as two Outstanding Excellence awards. SOS is now available for on-line streaming on many platforms, including Amazon Prime.  For links to view and more information about the issue, please visit the SOS Website.

Then U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz discusses the Department of Energy’s close partnership with the U.S. Nuclear Navy Jan. 12, 2017 at the Naval War College. Moniz is a reigning high priest of the nuclear revivalist cult. – U.S. Navy photo by Ezra Elliott/released

“One cannot exist without the other.  Without civil nuclear power, there can be no military nuclear power, and without military nuclear power, there is no civil nuclear power.” – French President Emmanuel Macron

“Imagine a death technology calling itself a nuclear renaissance. All it is, is a nuclear rebirth of an even more gouging crony capitalism, or corporate welfare system.” – Ralph Nader

Nuclear power in the US is in decline…42 reactor projects were abandoned, 41 built but closed, and scores now operate only thanks to government rescues…Nuclear power is a minor distraction, adding each year at best only as much electricity supply as renewables add every few days. It has no business case or operational need anywhere. – Amory Lovins

[C]ivilian nuclear power is merely a cover for producing more nuclear weapons.” – Alfred Meyer

By James Heddle By Mary Beth Brangan – EON

Psychopathological Nuclear Revivalism is on the Loose

• At the last COP 28 Climate Summit, over 20 nuclear nations on four continents and their allies and vassal states pledged to triple their ‘nuclear capacities’ by the year 2050, thus multiplying planet-wide nuclear risks by orders of magnitude. Source
• The U.S., China and Russia each have plans to build nuclear reactors on the moon. The reactors would be constructed by robots, run remotely via AI, and be prototypes for subsequent installations on other planets in the first phase of the hubristic galactic imperialism agenda. Source
• Nuclear propulsion and energy production in space are considered essential for military uses like High Energy Laser (HEL) directed energy weapons, and for mining the resources on asteroids and other planets. Source
• Although no working model of much-touted Small, Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMNRs) has yet made it off the drawing board, mass production of such reactors continues to be advocated both as a fictitious ‘solution’ for climate change, and as a necessary power source for the planned build-out of Artificial Intelligence (AI) facilities.
• This is the same specious rationale being used for extending the operating licenses of obsolete, aged, inadequately maintained old style nuclear reactors that are scheduled for shutdown and decommissioning – like Diablo Canyon. There is even a push to restart obsolete reactors already shutdown like Palisades in Michigan.
• The burgeoning spent nuclear fuel management industry is dominated by companies with dubious, predatory companies like Holtec International, which have their eyes on the massive accumulated decommissioning funds at each reactor site, dumping radioactive waste water into adjacent water systems, and even repurposing decommissioning sites for installation of their own brand of SMNRs.
• Former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, now head of the Energy Futures Initiative Foundation justifies nuclear revivalism because it supports the Nuclear Navy, spear tip of American power projection around the planet.
• Nuclear energy, weapons and radioactive waste management industries are key, interlocking components of the Permanent War Economy, yet they could not survive without massive government subsidies and support (both overt and covert) with taxpayer dollars.

In her book Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters, M.I.T. professor and environmental historian Kate Brown reveals the schizoid cognitive and ethical contradictions of societies organized around the production of the deadly man-made element plutonium.  It is a history with relevance today. As the developments listed above clearly show, Crackpot Nuclearism is having a heyday.

In the widest context, this is the implied scope of what we have dubbed in our film ‘the San Onofre Syndrome.’  It is the dedication of unlimited resources to a quintessentially totalitarian technology, the products and societal spin-offs of which are antithetical to democracy and to life in all its forms.

 While our just released, multi-award-winning feature documentary SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy – focuses on the potential impacts of informed people power, and the universal conundrum of responsible radioactive waste management, our broadest intent is to use SOS screenings as a wake-up call and catalyst for discussions helping to make viewers aware of the enveloping presence of what is termed by proponents and critics alike the over-arching ‘the nuclear enterprise.’  

The Nuclear Enterprise impacts virtually all sectors and institutions of our society and incorporates the mutually co-dependent nuclear energy and nuclear weapons production industries, their shared industrial base of extraction, milling, fabrication, transportation; an extensive infrastructure of education, research, labor training; the growing radioactive waste management industry; and a powerful lobbying arm with global reach.  It is a ‘public-private partnership’ on steroids.

We have examined aspects of this Nuclear Energy-Weapons-Waste Complex and the geopolitical and cosmic context for the ‘Save Diablo’ PsyOp in previous articles including: The Real Nuclear Triad; Joined At The  Hip; Nuclear Revivalism as a Cargo Cult; and The Hydra-Heads of Armageddon Man.  Because of the widespread impacts of this Nuclear Industrial Complex, we now live in a literally MAD world in which the certainty of Mutually Assured Destruction of adversarial nuclear weapons states is seen as the main ‘deterrent’ to nuclear war.  Is this clearly insane, or what?

 Both government control of business (or ‘communism’), and business control of government (or ‘fascism’) are in the thrall of the nuclear enterprise – or nuclear energy-weapons-waste complex. 

Our documentary SOS, The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy, portrays a microcosm of this general situation with universal implications. We show the reality of this monstrous death industry, and the state and federal agencies that provide for its support, structure, and funding through portraying the events at San Onofre and the ordinary citizens who grapple with them.

Our five main characters work tirelessly to first shut down the leaking reactors that they live close to, and then discover the horrifyingly inept waste management plans.

The waste is being stored only 108 ft. from the rising ocean, in a tsunami and flooding zone, surrounded by earthquake faults and only inches above rising groundwater.

The industry does not have a plan for how to remove the waste or to safely move it technically, yet it promises the public that if it only had a place to put it, it would be easily transportable.  Billions are being dangled before impoverished – often minority – communities to allow them to be ‘consolidated interim storage’ sites, or CIS.

SOS specifically opposes the concept of Consolidated Interim Storage (CIS). CIS requires that the lethal waste be moved twice.  We also oppose the storage and long-distance transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) in unsafe containers.  We oppose the idea of contaminating yet more land and communities, which are most of the time poor, minority people. 

SOS explicitly advocates for ongoing, transgenerational stewardship of spent fuel on existing reactor sites (or as close by as is safely possible to avoid the horrendous transportation risks) using aspects of the Swiss model for interim storage. 

The parts of the Swiss model technology that we need in the U.S. are:

1) a hot cell/dry handling facility for robotic handling; and

2) repackaging of the waste from inevitably short-term canisters into thick, monitored, inspectable, retrievable casks;  

3) stored in secure, climate-controlled buildings as close to the site of generation as is safely possible;

4) with ongoing skilled maintenance for as long as it is necessary.

This of course, is needed at every reactor site in the U.S. (and beyond) that currently is storing the ever-increasing volume of this lethal material.  Each site’s needs would be in the billions of dollars to do this properly.  But the industry makes decisions based on profit and so far, believes it won’t profit from safely managing the waste.

Therefore, it thinks of the problems of radioactive waste and nuclear risks in general, as a Public Relations problem and that if they only solve the P.R. problem, they can keep on making the messes and making profits from supposedly ‘dealing’ with them the cheapest, fastest way.  The billions in trust funds set aside for decommissioning from years of ratepayers’ fees are used by the industry with no adequate oversight or auditing.

So, this industry that must operate flawlessly to avoid catastrophic damage to the planetary DNA of all living creatures, makes decisions based on profits, not public health and safety.

Not even considering the any other adverse effects of this ultimate destructive force, the problem of the everlasting poisonous waste alone, in a sane society, would be enough to ban the use of this technology either for weapons or for boiling water to produce electricity.

 For more information and viewing options:

SanOnofreSyndrome.com

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Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle directed SOS together with Morgan Peterson, who also served as editor.

Chernobyl – 1986                                                                Fukushima – 2011                                 Credit: Semana.com

By Mary Beth Brangan – EON

So Soon We Forget

I offer these thoughts because I’m told by many that people, especially young folks, have little to no memory or knowledge of these essential learnings from Chernobyl and Fukushima.  Understanding these hard lessons allows us to see through the demonic joke of ‘clean and green’ nuclear power supposedly saving us from climate change.  

Chernobyl  

April 26, 2024, was the 38^th anniversary of Chernobyl, which is still considered by some to be the worst nuclear accident in history. That disaster exposed millions of people all over the planet to harmful ionizing radiation and its long-lasting humanitarian effects and severe social and political impacts contributed heavily to the collapse of the Soviet empire.    

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is about 81 miles north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and about 12 miles south of the border with Belarus.  The disaster site, still intensely radioactive, is now in the Ukrainian war zone, compounding the risks.    

Health Consequences  

Today, 38 years after the explosion, 60% – 80% of children born in contaminated areas in Belarus and Ukraine are chronically sick, with high rates of heartbreaking genetic mutations causing disease, deformities, lowered IQ, organ failure and early death.    

Fukushima Daiichi  

March 11, 2024, marks the 13^th year after Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station disaster began, precipitated by a huge earthquake and tsunami.  Because it had 3 reactor meltdowns, multiple explosions, and continuing extreme hazards at the site, many people contend it is the very worst nuclear disaster.     

There have been at least 300 cases of thyroid cancer in the relatively small Fukushima population around the melted reactors, not to mention other tragic medical and environmental results from the radiation released during and since the 2011 tragedy.    

Fukushima and Ukraine, like West Marin, California, were known for their rich farmlands and abundant organic fruits, (specially peaches), agricultural produce, cattle, and fish.  But now, their formerly famous food products are suspected as being too radioactive and are banned by many nations.  The U.S., however, allows higher levels of radioactivity in food, even baby food, and imports much of Japan’s food items judged even by Japan as too radioactive for their own consumption.   

Nevertheless, neither the Japanese nor the Ukrainian governments officially recognize the effects of the radioactive poisoning. The 65.000 thousand actual Japanese refugee victims whose lives, homes and health have been decimated by this invisible destroyer, are discriminated against socially and are being encouraged to return to their now horrifically irradiated lands!    

But this atrocity is also here in the U.S. where our government denies and covers up the effects of our extensive radioactive poisoning at thousands of locations affecting millions of people across many states.  Some examples: Native Americans living with highly contaminated water and soil from uranium mill tailings from mining for nuclear fuel; those adjacent to any of the many manufacturing sites for nuclear fuel and weapons production and their leaking and burning waste sites; downwinders from the nuclear bomb testing; people living close to the meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and the Santa Susana meltdown near Los Angeles are all officially ignored.  Cancer clusters are normal, and their suffering and contamination have been covered up and denied.   

However, right now there’s an intense effort by injured Native Americans and other U.S. citizens to get compensated for medical expenses caused by their exposures. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) bill has passed the Senate and must be passed by the House within 10 working days.  If it doesn’t pass, all support for these victims will be denied.  

Effects Here Along the West Coast of North America

Daily, tons of intensely contaminated groundwater from Fukushima have been pouring lethal radioactivity into the Pacific since March 2011.  This additional man-made radioactivity, added to that already permeating the ocean from bomb ‘testing’, has made its way to our edge of the Pacific, has been measured in the ocean water and is inevitably in our foggy marine layer along the West Coast, affecting all of us here.   

Beginning in August 2023, millions more tons of the lethally contaminated water are being released into the Pacific from tanks of water collected on site at Fukushima Daiichi. Many countries around Japan have strenuously objected to this and have sued the Japanese government. Japanese fishermen are distraught.

Why we produced our film.  

Together, these horrific ongoing DNA-destroying planetary wounds represent the still-unlearned lessons underlying our multiple award-winning feature documentary.      

We produced our documentary out of our heartache at the Fukushima disaster and to help prevent such destructive events from happening here in California.  Conditions here are like Fukushima – California’s nuclear reactors are also along the coast with rapidly rising sea levels and in earthquake/flood/tsunami zones.   

SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy shows the empowering saga of southern California residents who amazingly shut down leaking reactors.  They then discover to their horror that the intensely radioactive reactor fuel waste, lethal for millions of years, is being put into cement holes 100 feet from the rising ocean, inches above the rising water table and next to a popular site for international surfing competitions. The 73 canisters, only 5/8 in. thick, each contain more radioactivity than was released at Chernobyl and are corroding in the salty fog and spray.   

Alarmingly, this careless piling up of tons of mismanaged radioactive waste that’s lethal for millions of years in short term containers is a syndrome endemic to all the 93 reactors in the U.S.  Will we take appropriate action in California and throughout the U.S. now before it’s too late? 

Watch our award-winning film:  SOS, The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy!

URGENT Action Needed: Here is how to help get the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act passed. 

Mary Beth Brangan co-directs EON, the Ecological Options Network with James Heddle.  They directed the EON feature documentary SOS with Morgan Peterson, who also served as editor. Since its recent release SOS has won major awards in three film festivals:

• Grand Jury Award for Documentary – Awareness Film Festival – L.A., California, U.S.

• Best Educational Documentary – International Uranium Film Festival – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Outstanding Excellence Award– International Documentaries Without Borders Festival – U.K.