In Episode 121 [14] of the CounterVortex podcast [15], Bill Weinberg notes the grim irony that on the week of International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day [16], Russian regime [17] and state media [18] figures issued blatant threats to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. This follows criminal recklessness [19] by Russian forces [38] at the Chernobyl [20] and Zaporizhzhya [21] nuclear plants, which itself constituted an escalation on the ladder of nuclear terror. These events clearly illustrate how nuclear power and weapons constitute a single unified threat. Weinberg continues his deconstruction [22] of the industry propaganda [23] about how the "no safe dose [24]" dictum is now obsolete (no [25], it isn't [26], actually [27]), and sophistries such as the "Banana Equivalent Dose [28]." Amid the relentless efforts to revive the nuclear industry [29] in the US, China is undertaking a major thrust of nuclear development [30], with similar plans afoot [31] in France. And this as economies are increasingly based on energy-intensive [32] and socially oppressive [33] activities like "crypto-mining." Nonetheless, respected environmentalists such as acclaimed climate scientist James Hansen [39] and Charles Komanoff [40] of the Carbon Tax Center [41] now advocate a continuance of reliance on nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels. This false choice is predicated on the continuance of dystopian "normality [34]"—exactly what needs to be challenged. Listen on SoundCloud [14] or via Patreon [35].
Reading: "The Long Death [42]" by Marge Piercy
Production by Chris Rywalt [43]
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