Marion Pack

In this conversation recorded in June, Dr. Caldicott talks with California anti-nuclear activist, Marion Pack.  Pack is one of many members of the Orange County community who highlight serious safety issues with the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located a few miles south of San Clemente, California.   If San Onofre were to melt down, it would contaminate Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, and make large regions of southern California uninhabitable forever.  As background, read Shut down San Onofre: The continuing nuclear threat to southern California and Bad Vibrations: San Onofre steam generators cannot safely be repaired – new Fairewinds video and report.  Topics addressed in the interview include nuclear waste, the 1980s Nuclear  Freeze movement, the present public apathy toward nuclear war, and the many recent safety risks and radiation leaks at the San Onofre nuclear plant between San Diego and Los Angeles, where whistleblowers have been threatened.  They examine a terrifying close call which brought the plant close to a major accident, and how San Onofre’s position on three major earthquake fault lines, right on the coast, makes it a sitting duck for a major meltdown like Fukushima.  Later in the program, Dr. Caldicott stresses the urgent need for civil disobedience around nuclear issues and global warming, in the face of political inertia.  She refers to Kumi Naidoo, head of Greenpeace.  Read Civil Disobedience Needed to Win Action on Climate Change, New Greenpeace Chief Says.  She also refers to Peter Finch’s famous scene in the film Network in discussing the level of outrage the public should exhibit toward threats to the planet.  For a recent update on San Onofre, read the November 30 Friends of the Earth press release:  San Onofre: Laguna Hills meeting no substitute for formal court hearings about the local utility’s plans to restart one of the crippled reactors.  For more information, see sanonofresafety.org.


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