As of February 2016 Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates is on a one month speaking tour of Japan to assess the status of the cleanup. He arrives at a crucial moment. Even though polls show that at least 70% of Japanese do not want the nuclear power plants reopened that were shut down 5 years ago, the Abe government is determined to put many of them back on line and has begun the process. And to make things worse the Japanese government is planning to burn plutonium mixed with uranium in their aging reactors, a practice that has been abandoned in the US due to the high risk.
This program includes a phone report from the ghost towns around Fukushima and an in depth analysis of the collusion between the electric power industry, banks and government in Japan
In 2008 Gundersen’s wife Maggie formed the non-profit Fairewinds Energy Education. Their website features videos and pod-casts as well as blog posts on current events, expert witness reports on nuclear safety issues, a book list, media coverage and much more. http://www.fairewinds.org/
As a young man Arnie Gundersen believed in the promise of nuclear power. He was a licensed reactor operator and managed and coordinated projects at 70 nuclear power plants in the US. However he became increasingly more aware of the high risks while at the same time observing serious safety breaches. He spoke out and became a whistle blower. After 20 years as nuclear engineer and executive, Gundersen was fired from his job in 1990.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
