nuclear-news

OCTOBER 5, 2009 Project Censored The top stories not brought to you by mainstream news media in 2008 and 2009 BY REBECCA BOWE – “……..”I really think we’re beyond reforming corporate media,” says Phillips, a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and the director of Project Censored. “We’re not going to break up these huge conglomerates. We’re just going to make them irrelevant.”……………

The stories Project Censored highlights may have run in one or two news outlets, but didn’t get the type of attention they deserved…………….

The top 25 Project Censored stories of 2008-2009 highlight the same theme that Phillips and Huff say has triggered the downslide of mainstream media: the influence of powerful, profit-driven interests. Here’s this year’s list:………

3 . Somali pirates: The untold story …..Even as the pirates’ exploits around the Gulf of Aden captured the world’s attention, however, very little ink was devoted to factors that made the Somalis desperate enough to resort to piracy in the first place: the dumping of nuclear waste …. in their coastal waters……..In the early 1990s, when the government of Somalia collapsed, foreign interests began swooping into unguarded coastal waters to trawl for food — and venturing into unprotected Somali territories to cheaply dispose of nuclear waste. The ramifications of toxic dumping hit full force with the 2005 tsunami, when leaking barrels were washed ashore, sickening hundreds and causing birth defects in newborn infants…………”Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome?” asked journalist Johann Hari in a Huffington Post article

4. North Carolina’s nuclear nightmare

The Shearon Harris nuclear plant in North Carolina’s Wake County isn’t just a power generating station. The Progress Energy plant, located in a backwoods area, bears the distinction of housing the largest radioactive waste storage pools in the country. Spent fuel rods from two other nuclear plants are transported there by rail, then stored beneath circulating cold water to prevent the radioactive waste from heating.

The hidden danger, according to investigative reporter Jeffery St. Clair, is the looming threat of a pool fire………. Shearon Harris’ track record is pocked with problems requiring temporary shutdowns of the plant and malfunctions of the facility’s emergency-warning system.

Project Censored – The top stories not brought to you by mainstream news media in 2008 and 2009 – News & Views – News Feature – Gambit – New Orleans